Concerns About Akkuyu Nuclear Plant After Quake

Two recent major earthquakes that devastated buildings in southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria have again raised reminders about the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station being constructed on Turkey’s south coast, Associated Press reports.It has been reported that there was no damage reported and that the plant, which is 338 km west of the epicentre of the earthquake which occurred on 6 February, has been designed to withstand earthquakes of a magnitude of 9 on the Richter Scale.The plant lies around 90 km across the sea from Cyprus.According to Russian state-owned company Rosatom, which has a build-own-operate contract for the power plant with Turkey, says that it is designed to “withstand extreme external influences” from a magnitude 9 earthquake.Rosatom told Associated Press that the likelihood of a magnitude 9 earthquake occurring in the region when the Akkuyu power plant is sited “is approximately once every 10,000 years. That is exactly how the margin of safety concept is being implemented”.