A nuclear professor called the risks of building the Turkish Akkuyu nuclear power plant in a seismically hazardous region

— What force of an earthquake is designed for a modern nuclear power plant?

— There are two types of calculations. First, this is a design earthquake, which the station must withstand without any consequences for equipment and building structures, says Professor Kuznetsov. – It is worth 6 points. The second is the maximum design earthquake, in which the equipment inside the containment (where the primary circuit equipment is located) can be damaged, it can be torn off the foundations, but there should be no release of radioactivity. And this is the best case. The maximum design earthquake for which the station is calculated is a magnitude of 8 points. But where this will lead – there is no supporting data.

The epicenter of the first earthquake, which occurred on February 6, was in the Shehitkamil district of Gaziantep. There were recorded tremors with a magnitude of 7.8 points. The epicenter of the second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 was in the Ekinezyu area in Kahramanmarash.

– I looked at the map, from the place where points of magnitude 7.7 were recorded to the nuclear power plant under construction on the Mediterranean coast – 210 kilometers in a straight line. One can imagine what gigantic forces were applied there if the Arabian tectonic plate moved three meters. Geophysicists and seismologists say that tremors can be repeated. And where is the guarantee that the epicenter of the earthquake will not move closer to the NPP site?

The professor says that Turkey does not have its own staff, which could serve such a complex facility as Akkuyu with four reactors.

“They only have one small research reactor. The station is built according to the principle: “build-own-operate” (in the English version – Build-Own-Operate). That is, the staff there will be Russian. They will become practically hostages of any situation that can happen at a nuclear power plant. One power unit is going to be launched at the end of this year, the second – next year, and further – along the chain. No one knows when the next time it will shake. The whole of Turkey is a seismically active region. Erdogan was now speaking, who said that the current earthquake practically repeated the tragedy that occurred on December 27, 1939. Then more than 32 thousand people died, and about a hundred thousand were injured. The epicenter, with a magnitude of 7.8, was in Erzincan. People were also sleeping. It was at two o’clock.

In the region of the North Anatolian Fault in 1939, a 360-kilometer-long shift occurred with a horizontal displacement of up to 3.7 meters. The earthquake also caused a tsunami in the Black Sea.

The doctor of technical sciences believes that a mistake was made initially. It is categorically dangerous to place nuclear power plants in such seismically hazardous areas.

– Confirmation of this is the radiation disaster at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima in 2011. At one time, due to seismic hazard, the construction of the Crimean NPP and 5-6 power units of the Balaklava NPP were stopped. The only institute in the USSR and in Russia – VNIIAM (Research Institute of Nuclear Engineering), which dealt with the seismic hazard of nuclear power plants, was closed back in 2008.

According to the expert, when the decision was made to build Akkuyu in Turkey, they issued a document called EIA – an environmental impact assessment.

– Everything was agreed in the state document – EIA. But an alternative EIA document was released, on which a group of Turkish scientists, including seismologists, worked. It said that it was impossible to build a nuclear power plant there.

Professor Kuznetsov draws attention to the fact that for some reason the Americans did not begin to build nuclear power plants on the Mediterranean coast according to their project, although they prefer to build “beach” stations.

“The Americans didn’t get in there, although there is an Incirlik air base nearby on the coast, a little to the north, where the United States stores nuclear weapons. She is now well shaken. But it is reported that the arsenal was not damaged.

The expert recalls the events that took place at the largest Japanese nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located in Niigata Prefecture.

– After the 2007 earthquake of magnitude 6.8, the epicenter of which was 19 kilometers from Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the foundation slab burst under the reactor. Moreover, the owners of the station hid this even from their supervision. But there was a leak of information in the media. As a result, the station is now mothballed.

As for Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power plant, it is reported that diagnostic measures are now being taken there to ensure that construction and installation operations can continue in a safe manner.

– From my position as a doctor of technical sciences, professor, I want to say that it is necessary to suspend construction at Akkuyu, by agreement with the Turkish government. Create a special commission, which must necessarily include Turkish scientists, and not only those who are part of state structures. And conduct a comprehensive assessment of the facility under construction. See what the earthquake did there. The commission must give its opinion, “go-ahead” for further construction.

Most of the Russians who are involved in the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant live in the small town of Tashuju, which, however, they prefer to call a village. Due to the large number of Russians, here signs on shops and cafes are duplicated in Russian. And in local eateries they prepare dishes of Russian cuisine, where dumplings are a priority.

But now all the talk in Tashuju is about the earthquake.

“It was very scary, we felt the tremors well,” says Daria, who lives in Tashuju. “Everyone immediately ran out into the street. Then we spent the night with the children in the car. But in the town not a single house was destroyed, so far, thank God, everything worked out.

Daria recalls that last year they caught a 4.5 magnitude earthquake, the epicenter of which was near Cyprus.

– Then the house was also literally shaking, I woke up from the fact that the bed was shaking, and then I realized that the whole house was shaking. And now it was even stronger. But our house is not high, it stands on a mountain, and those who live in high-rises, there, of course, people still cannot recover from fear. Everything can happen again.