Japanese-French consortium, China still in running for nuclear plant: Turkish energy minister

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

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A Japanese-French consortium and a Chinese company are still racing to build Turkey’s second nuclear power station, slated for the Black Sea province of Sinop, Turkey’s energy minister has said.

“We’ve come to the end of the process, and we’ll finalize [the decision] soon,” Taner Yıldız said, answering reporters at the 19th International Energy and Environment Fair and Conference, which began today in Istanbul.

Yıldız reiterated that Canada and South Korea, the other short-listed companies, had quit the competition and that the consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi and France’s Areva were competing against China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding.

Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported today that the Japanese-French consortium was on track to win the deal and that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would likely sign the deal with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a visit to Turkey next week as part of a four-nation trip that ends May 4.

A Mitsubishi spokesman declined to comment on the Yomiuri report, while an official in the Japanese Trade Ministry’s nuclear energy policy division was not immediately available for comment, when asked by Agence France-Presse.

Earlier this month, Japanese reports again claimed the Franco-Japanese group had clinched the deal, but Yıldız subsequently said it was too early to declare a winner to build the project.

Japan, South Korea, China and Canada were the short-listed contenders for the 5,000-megawatt nuclear power plant, Turkey’s second planned atomic power station after one in Mersin that is currently under construction. France also emerged as another bidder, with French company GDF Suez officially placing a joint bid with Japanese companies.

Last month the minister announced that Canada and South Korea were dropping out of the competition. The second nuclear power plant is expected to require an investment worth between $22 billion and $25 billion.