Turkey, Japan sign $22 bln deal for Sinop nuclear plant

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, signed a $22 bln deal on Turkey’s second nuclear plant project on May 3 in the Black Sea province of Sinop, ending months of speculation about the winning bidder for the plant.

“This is a very important deal. With this second nuclear plant, we have also taken the first step toward a third one, which is a lot to us,” Erdoğan told reporters after a signing ceremony with Abe. Erdoğan also emphasized Japan’s safety know-how and experience against earthquakes.

Underlining the significance of the agreement as Japan’s first nuclear deal since the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Abe said safety would be the top priority for the project.

“We believe Japan will transfer its experiences and the lessons it learned from serious accidents to nuclear studies and will contribute to ensuring nuclear safety at the top level,” he said.

The consortium will also be responsible for the ground studies of Turkey’s third nuclear plant, which is slated to be built in a still-undetermined location.

The first unit of the nuclear plant is set to be active by 2023, while the last unit will come online by 2028. “We have 10 years now to make the nuclear plant active. I believe we can shorten this period together,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey to say in days who will build 2nd nuclear plant

Reuters

Turkey’s energy minister said Ankara will announce by the weekend which country will construct its second nuclear power station, a project expected to cost around $22 billion.

Turkey, likely to overtake Britain as Europe’s third-biggest electricity consumer within ten years, plans to build several nuclear plants over the next decade to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas.

“We are about to finalise the agreement for construction of the second power plant. China and Japan are the front runners,” Taner Yıldız told reporters today.

Turkey is expected to choose a Japanese consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Itochu , with France’s GDF Suez, to build the plant which is seen having a capacity of around 4,500-5,000 megawatts (MW), according to Turkish government sources.

Turkish media reported in March that the deal will be signed by Turkish and Japanese officials in early May to construct four pressurized water nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of about 4.5 gigawatts at Sinop on theBlack Sea. Construction is to start in 2017.

Turkey signed a deal with Russia’s Rosatom in 2010 to build its first nuclear power station. Rosatom will start construction in mid-2015 and it expects electricity production to start in 2019, its deputy general manager said in February.

Japan, France set to win Turkish nuclear plant deal

AFP

TOKYO — A consortium of Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France's Areva are on track to win a deal to build a $20 billion nuclear power station in Turkey, a report said on Wednesday.

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo 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 on May 4.

A Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman declined comment on the Yomiuri report Wednesday, while an official in the Japanese trade ministry's nuclear energy policy division was not immediately available to comment.

Japan is increasingly looking abroad to grow its nuclear power business after demand fell away at home in the wake of the Fukushima atomic crisis two years ago.

An earlier report said the Turkish project would see four pressurised water reactors with a combined output of 4.5 million kilowatts built on the Black Sea coast.

Construction of the plant is slated to begin in 2017, with the first reactor coming online by 2023, Japan's leading Nikkei business daily has reported.

Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said this month it was too early to declare a winner to build the project, amid reports the Franco-Japanese group had clinched it. Yildiz added that "we are currently holding talks with China and Japan".

"I can say Japan's claims are premature and the race is still continuing," he said in a televised interview.

Turkey nears decision on $20bn nuclear deal

Daniel Dombey     Financial Times

Turkey is in the final stages of deciding a showpiece nuclear power tender, with the choice resting between Japan and China.

The project, expected to be worth more than $20bn, has taken longer than expected to decide, with Turkey’s insistence on financial guarantees from the contactors or their home nations proving a key point of discussion.

“The competition continues. We are still in talks with China and Japan,” said Taner Yildiz, Turkey’s energy minister. “China and Japan are keen for the project.” He added that South Korea had pulled out of the tender because of problems over a treasury guarantee. A Canadian bid had previously pulled out.

Mr Yildiz added that Turkey had told South Korea that the question of a treasury guarantee was one of Turkey’s “red lines” for the project, and that “very intensive meetings with China and Japan are approaching the end.”

Japan’s Nikkei business daily had reported earlier on Thursday that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva had won the order, citing Japanese and Turkish sources.

The newspaper said the Turkish energy ministry had informed Japanese government and corporate officials of the decision to award the deal to build four pressurised water nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of about 4.5 gigawatts at Sinop on the Black Sea, the report said.