Turkey Denies Plans to Build Any Power Plant on Bulgarian Border

Business » ENERGY | December 7, 2012, Friday // 20:10
Bulgaria: Turkey Denies Plans to Build Any Power Plant on Bulgarian Border Environmental officials from Bulgaria and Turkey met during United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha to discuss the reports of Turkey's alleged plans to build a power plant on the Bulgarian border, which have caused environmental conc

Turkey's Deputy Environment Minister Muhammet Balta has refuted the reports that there is a project to build a power plant on the Black Sea coast on the Bulgarian border, the bulgarian Environment Ministry reported, referring to the information that has caused concern in both Bulgaria and Turkey.

Balta has met with Bulgarian Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, the meeting having been requested by the Bulgarian side with respect to the media reports dating back to 2011 that Turkey planned a nuclear power plant or a thermal power plant very close to some of the major Bulgarian Black Sea resorts, in the town of Igneada, near the Bulgarian border village of Rezovo.

Turkey's Deputy Environment Minister Muhammet Balta, who was the head of the Turkish delegation to the climate change summit in Doha, told the Bulgarian delegation that the Turkish Environment Ministry had not received any investment proposal for the construction of a power plant in the area bordering Bulgaria.

Balta is said to have expressed the readiness of the Turkish government to present complete information to Bulgaria if any investment proposal of such character gets submitted to his ministry.

He is also reported to have shared the position of the Bulgarian Environment Minister Karadzhova that there should be complete transparency and information for the people in both Bulgaria and Turkey on this matter. He also said that if a power plant project is considered in the future, any Environmental Impact Assessment procedure would be as transparent as possible.

Karadzhova is said to have requested that the Bulgarian government receive information about any power plant investment proposal in response to a letter that her ministry sent to the Turkish authorities in mid November 2012.

According to a statement of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry from November 2012, Turkey's government has officially declared that it does not plan to construct a nuclear power plant just several kilometers away from its border with Bulgaria but plans to build a thermal power plant instead.

Turkey has sent an official note to Bulgaria refuting recent rumors that it was planning to build a nuclear power plant in the town of Igneada, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry revealed a month ago.

Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vesela Cherneva stated that Turkey plans to build a thermal power plant on the spot instead. She added that the thermal power plant project was in a very early stage and that Bulgaria will be informed about future developments.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also informed a Bulgarian MEP that the rumored nuclear power plant project does not exist.

In November 2012, it emerged that the municipality of the small Black Sea Turkish town of Igneada has received a letter from the central government in Ankara announcing the upcoming construction of a nuclear power plant and thermal power plant on the spot.

Igneada is a town of some 2 000 inhabitants, located 5 km south of the Rezovska (Rezovo) River, which marks the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The first reports that Turkey was planning to build a nuclear power plant there emerged in 2011.

Back in April 2011, the Turkish Consul in Burgas Sibel Arkan told Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov that Igneada is only the project with the third highest possibility to become Turkey's third NPP and the Turkish government is yet to take a decision on its construction.

In May 2010, Turkey reached an agreement with Russia for the construction of what will become Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Mersin's Akkuyu district. Turkey's second NPP is to be located in Sinop on the Black Sea.

Locals in both Bulgaria and Turkey are said to be alarmed by the reports that a NPP may be built in Igneada.

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Tags: Ahmet Davutoglu, Bulgaria Greens, Igneada, Black Sea, Black Sea coast, Taner Yildiz, NPP, Nuclear Power Plant, NPP, Sinop NPP, Igneada NPP, EDF, GDF Suez, Areva, Ankara, Tekirdag, France, Sinop, Akkuyu NPP, Nuclear Power Plant, NPP, Taner Yildiz, Black Sea coast, Black Sea, Igneada, thermal power plant, TPP, Nona Karadzhova, Environment Minister, Environment Ministry, EIA, environmental impact assessment, Muhammet Balta, Doha, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha

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