Turkey, China in nuke talks during PM’s visit

URUMQI

Becoming the first Turkish PM visiting China in 27 years, Erdoğan’s (R) visit to the autonomous Uighur region marks a first. AA photo

The government will decide on a tender for the second nuclear power plant in two months, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız said yesterday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Turkey is set to finalize nuclear power plant building talks with China during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the Asian country, Yıldız added. 

Speaking to reporters in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China, where he is accompanying Erdoğan on a three-day official visit to the country, Yıldız said South Korea, Japan, Russia and China were at the forefront of Turkey’s plans for the second nuclear power plant.

“We will decide if China can build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant during our current trip,” Yıldız said. He is set to hold talks with the Chinese Energy Minister on the issue during the trip, he added.

Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom will build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant with four reactors in Akkuyu, near the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Mersin. The plant, which will cost about $20 billion, will be active for 60 years. The first unit of the power plant is expected to start production in 2018. Russian interest in the plan will be no less than 51 percent, according to the deal.

The second nuclear plant is slated for the northern province of Sinop. 

Talks with South Korea for the second nuclear power plant are also still underway. Yıldız said South Korea had expressed an interest in constructing a 5,000-6,000 megawatt nuclear power plant in Turkey during a visit late March, according to Reuters.

Chinese turbine factory

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited a factory producing turbines for wind energy in Urumchi on the first day of his official trip to China yesterday, a trip marking the first visit to the Middle Kingdom by a Turkish premier in 27 years.

Erdogan told reporters he had invited the executives of Gold Wind, the turbine maker, to Turkey to make investments.

“We have been promised that the executives of the turbine factory will come to Turkey and seek opportunities for investments,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdoğan as saying.

He also visited companies working in the renewable energy field during a tour at the Economic and Technologic Development Region in Urumqi, and said there were many places designated for wind power investments in Turkey. 

Taner Yıldız echoed the Prime Minister, saying “[maps for wind farm locations] are all prepared.”
Yıldız also said that the new incentive package announced last week would make important contributions to energy investments in Turkey.

“We especially wanted local and renewable sources to be part of the incentive package. That is what our prime minister deemed suitable. [The incentive system] will clear the way for coal, local coal, wind and solar power plants, without natural gas,” he said.