Turkey's EUAS, Candu Energy Sign Agreement for Nuclear Plant in Sinop

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With increasing power demands from its near double-digit growth economy, Turkey wants to strengthen its hand with new partnerships in nuclear energy. In a recent move, Turkey's state-owned electricity producer Elektrik Uretim AS or EUAS (Ankara, Turkey) signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian nuclear power company Candu Energy Incorporated (Mississauga, Ontario) regarding the construction of a nuclear plant at the Black Sea port city of Sinop. Turkey is aiming to have five nuclear power plants with a total of 20 reactors by 2030.

"Candu will work with EUAS on the feasibility study of a nuclear plant. After six months, we will see if we can agree or not," Taner Yildiz, Turkey's Minister of Energy, said in a press conference.

Candu Vice President Ala Alizadeh said that the 3,000-megawatt (MW) Sinop plant would cost $20 billion. "The location of Sinop and the water cooling facilities may allow the capacity to be increased to 6,000 MW," Alizadeh said.

"Since the 1950s, Turkey has repeatedly shown interest in the Candu reactor, which will use natural uranium without enrichment. The Turkish Atomic Energy Commission or TAEK always backed Candu plants. These plants are in line with our country's technical capabilities," said Necmi Dayday, a retired IAEA safety inspector and professor of physics at Galatasaray University in Istanbul.

In an interview with Industrial Info, he described the choice as the "first phase of localization of nuclear energy technology." Dayday said, "We can develop our own technology for our necessities. These plants are suitable to use thorium with uranium. But thorium usage is not feasible for economic reasons. Also thorium technology needs to be upgraded to use in these plants," he said.

Turkey is also continuing talks with China, South Korea and Japan about nuclear power plants. On April 9, Turkey and China signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement in Beijing during Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's official visit to China. For additional information, see April 11, 2012, article - Turkey and China Sign Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement.

Turkey has already finalized plans for its first nuclear power plant, a 4,800-MW plant consisting of four units, to be built at Mersin-Akkuyu on the country's Mediterranean coast. The construction, which will be built by a consortium led by Russia's Atomstroyexport (Moscow), is expected to begin in 2013. The plant has been granted a feed-in tariff of $0.1235 per kilowatt-hour for two of the plants' four units for 15 years after commissioning, guaranteed by Turkey's state power trading authority TETAS. For additional information, see April 16, 2012, story - China May Build Second Nuclear Plant with Western Firm, Turkey's Energy Minister Says.

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