Nuclear power naysayers won't deter Turkey: Erdogan

By Ahmet Sait Akcay

ANKARA

Turkey’s president on Tuesday expressed the country’s determination to press ahead with the country’s nuclear power program despite any naysayers.

“Turkey will build nuclear energy [plants] whether it bothers anyone or not,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a mass inauguration of energy sector investments in the capital Ankara.

Using nuclear energy will reduce Turkey’s dependency on outside energy sources, and will also support sustainable growth, he added.

Turkey currently plans to build three nuclear power plants, including Akkuyu in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin, set to start construction in early 2018 and go online in 2023, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said on Monday.

Erdogan also said: “The national energy and mining policies are the driving force for Turkey to reach its targets in the future.”

The president also slammed people trying to hinder Turkey’s energy investments.

“Some make a special effort to sabotage our energy initiatives. They identify bloody-minded terrorists as ‘ecology experts’,” said Erdogan, disparaging the label.