UAE eyes Turkish nuke tender

KAYSERİ

Turkey has stepped up its efforts to build up nuclear power plants in recent years at a time countries like Germany and Japan plans to abandon their nuclear industry.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) could join a project to build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant if South Korea is involved, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said yesterday at the third Turkey Energy Summit in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

“Officials from the United Arab Emirates said they could be a partner in the project if South Korea undertakes the building of the nuclear power plant plant,” in northern Turkey, Taner Yıldız was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

Three plants in five years

The government plans to build three nuclear power plants within five years in hopes of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on foreign energy supplies. Turkey struck a deal with Russia in 2010 to build the country’s first power plant at Akkuyu in the southern Mersin province.

The government plans to build a second reactor in northern Turkey, near the Black Sea city of Sinop, but it has not yet announced a location for a third reactor. Ankara is negotiating with a number of countries, including South Korea, China and Japan, for the building of the second power plant.
Of the four countries interested in the tender for the second nuclear power plant, two of them have edged forward, Yıldız said.

The nuclear power plant to be built in Akkuyu will not increase Turkey’s dependence on Russian energy, but on the contrary will decrease it, Yıldız said, according to Anatolia news agency, adding that Turkey recently signed an agreement with the UAE with regard to the generation of electric power from coal at the Afşin Elbistan coal field in southern Turkey. Once a permanent agreement is reached, the UAE will invest $5 billion in the region, which will become the largest Arab investment in the energy field in Turkey, he said.

Studies on the route and partnerships of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) presently continue, he said, and energy giants BP and Total may join the project. “Our politics with Russia, Iran and Syria may be different, however, cooperation in the energy field continues and is isolated from politics. The other day, when the flow of both Azerbaijani and Iranian gas was cut, after we made a request from Russia, Moscow increased the amount of gas flow 1.5 times,” Yıldız said, replying to a question regarding the Syrian plane that was forced to land in Ankara Oct. 11.