Turkish premier chooses Black Sea port for country's first nuclear power plant

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Apr 12

Turkey's prime minister chose a port city on the Black Sea for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant, the head of the national atomic energy institute said Wednesday.

Turkey has long sought to develop nuclear power to make up for a limited supply of domestic energy and to reduce dependence on energy supplies from Iran and Russia.

Calls for Turkey to develop alternative energy sources were widespread during the past winter, when unexplained cuts in the supply of natural gas from Iran forced many companies to lower or entirely stop production.

Turkey is a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and any nuclear activities would be subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that the program was constructed for peaceful means.

The United States has called on 99 percent Muslim Turkey to pressure its southern neighbor Iran to halt its nuclear program, which the U.S. says is being used as cover for producing nuclear weapons. Turkey has repeatedly said that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to regional peace and stability.

The plant at Sinop was chosen by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from eight other cities selected by the Turkish Atomic Energy Institute, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkey first announced plans to build a reactor in 1996, but the project has repeatedly been put on hold due to financial problems.

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