Speaker
Mr
IBRAHIM UNAL
(TURKISH)
Description
Consumption of electricity increases very rapidly in Turkey. Production of energy is largely provided with natural gas and coal thermal power plants. There is no sufficient domestic reserve to supply all fuel needs for power plants. Because of this, Turkey has to import natural gas and coal to produce electricity. This situation results for the foreign trade deficit. In addition, the cost of imported fuels increases day by day. The government prefers to use domestic resources which are uranium, thorium and low grade lignite to supply fuels for power plants. Nuclear energy is the best choice to close gap of energy and the foreign trade deficit of Turkey. Therefore, the first Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) construction has been continued in Mersin. The other NPPs are going to be constructed to close energy gap.
The exploration of radioactive elements in Turkey has been continued for forty years. Almost all of the uranium and thorium reserves were found by General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration. Geoscientists explored approximately 9000 tons U3O8 reserves in Turkey. In the past, pilot yellow cake production was successfully completed but there is no former stage products for nuclear energy which are uranium pellets and fuel bars.
Exploration of radioactive elements is more important than past nowadays. As a result, General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration prepared a new exploration program in Central Anatolia. After the geological, geophysical and geochemical applications, Dadag deposit was found in 2012. In the project, approximately 6000m diamond core drilling, hundreds of surface rock sampling and thousands of surface geophysical anomaly points were completed in 2013. According to geochemistry results of rock samples from cores and trenches, the grade changes between 100 – 900ppm. Core samples were taken with the help of down hole geophysical methods which were gamma ray log and natural gamma ray spectrometry method. Anomalous curves are observed in Early Eocene aged Kubaca unit which consists of limestone, sandstone and bituminous shale. Reserve calculation has been continued for this uranium reserve. Exploration facilities which are 10,000m diamond core drilling, detailed geological mapping 3-D modeling and geophysical investigations are going to continue in 2014.
Primary author
Mr
IBRAHIM UNAL
(TURKISH)
