Candu also up for nuclear plant deal

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız (R) sits besides World Energy Council President Pierre Gaddoneix at the April 20 summit. AA photo

Canadian firm Candu and Elektrik Üretim (EÜAS) signed a deal to conduct feasibility studies for the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant project on Turkey’s Black Sea coast. The cost of the plant is roughly $20 billion.

“This signing ceremony will underline once more Turkey’s commitment to a nuclear power plant,” said Energy Minister Taner Yıldız at the World Leaders’ Energy Summit at Çırağan Palace on April 20.
Yıldız said they would conducting studies with the Canadian firm for six months to determine whether the project is feasible and would make the results transpartent.

“After six months we will see if we can reach an agreement. Maybe we can and maybe we can’t,” said Yıldız.

“There is one more point I want to clarify. We are open to other proposals as well,” said Yıldız, noting that Turkey was not only working with a Russian firm.

“We have been interested in the Turkish market for year,” Candu Vice President Ala Alizadeh said. “The feasibility studies will take six months and this will allow us to work on the project’s economic, technical, environmental and financial dimensions.”

Joint projects with China

Candu and EÜAS will form a joint team to complete the feasibility studies.

Meanwhile, Yıldız also told reporters before the summit that Turkey was willing to carry out joint energy projects with China. Yıldız said there were nuclear, charcoal, wind and solar energy possibilities in Turkey.

 “I think that we can fulfil some of these projects with China,” Yıldız said. He added that one of the Chinese companies he met in China last week came to Turkey, and defined the meeting as significant.
 “We will send a technical delegation headed by ministry undersecretary to China next week. They will discuss details there,” he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also sent a message saying: “We plan to make more than $100 billion in energy investments in ten years. We plan to use our domestic and renewable energy resources first and then make nuclear energy 10 percent of our energy in 2023.” Erdoğan also stressed that these investments would largely come from the private sector and invited all global energy sector investors to keep their eyes Turkey.