A report in the BirGün daily on Monday maintained that the engineers responsible for preparing the Akkuyu plant resigned from their posts six months before the reports were due to be turned in, prompting suspicion that the assessments had been conducted unsupervised by professionals.
The Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers’ (TMMOB) requested a criminal investigation, and found that two of the signatures of the nuclear energy engineers had been forged. Furthermore, according to BirGün, the report had been revised by the contractor firm, Akkuyu NPP — a subsidiary of Russian energy firm Rosatom and the private company issuing the ÇED, without notifying the engineers.
According to the report, the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning approved the tampered ÇED, effectively giving the go-ahead for the construction of the power plant.
Environment and Urban Planning Minister İdris Güllüce rejected on Monday BirGün’s claims that the signatures were forged, saying the article was intentionally written to “obstruct Turkey’s development.” Güllüce wrote on his Twitter account that “no one should think they can hinder the development and growth of Turkey with these types of intentional articles.”
After independent analyses by three experts, the signatures on the report were found to have been forged and the license of the private firm that issued the ÇED is expected to be revoked.
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