Violation of the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, Bucharest’s Convention of 1992 and the Sofia Protocol of 2018 by Turkish Government’s Sinop Nuclear Power Complex Project

Abstract

On September 12th, 2020, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning issued a final approved version of an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report for the Sinop (4,800 MWe) nuclear power plant and nuclear fuel fabrication complex project, located on Turkey's Southern Black Sea coastline, in the Sinop Providence, which will be built on a BOO (Build-Own-Operate) basis by an offshore company known as General Directorate of Electricity Generation Inc. (EUAS) International ICC, along with unknown shadowy partners and investors. This project violates the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution, namely, Bucharest's Convention of 1992, and the Sofia Protocol of 2018 which are established to preserve the uniqueness of the Black Sea, sustain the fisheries, and protect marine life. The Black Sea is the largest anoxic water basin in the world with oxygen rich surface waters supporting marine life which constitute only about 13% of the Black Sea volume. For the rest of the entire Black Sea at a depth greater than 150-200 m, there is a permanent hydrogen sulphide zone devoid of life, the oxygen is completely absent after this level. This unique bio-hydrological characteristic has been regulating the preconditions of its following distinctive biodiversity for thousands of years. The biologically rich regions are only limited to only oxygen rich shelf zones, with depths of up to 50-100 m in the southern coast line, and in the northern Black Sea shallow-water areas with depths of up to 5-10 m. This water body, bordering the hydrogen sulphide zone, is approximately 200-300 m wide and averages 5-50 m deep, in which high concentrations of fish eggs and larvae strive, and circulate counterclockwise along 4340 km coastline of the Black Sea.