Turkey casts doubt on nuclear plant project

Turkey's energy minister on Wednesday slammed a tender won by Russia's state nuclear giant to build the country's first nuclear power plant amid media reports that Ankara could cancel the project. A consortium led by Russia's Atomstroyexport was the only bidder in the tender last year and the government - unhappy with the financial terms the company offered - is yet to decide whether to go ahead with the project.
"If such a high price has emerged with just one company... if we are unhappy with the price, it means there is a deficiency," Anatolia news agency quoted the minister, Taner Yildiz, as saying in the southern city of Antalya.
Yildiz, who was only appointed energy minister in May, said he would have chosen a different strategy to attract more bidders if he had held the portfolio when the project was auctioned. The consortium, which also includes Russia's Inter Rao and Turkey's Park Teknik, has already revised down its proposed price for the electricity the plant will produce, but Ankara remains dissatisfied. Yildiz said the company's offer stood at "some 15 cents" per kilowatt per hour, down from the original 21.16 cents.
During a visit to Ankara earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin argued the price was below international market levels as he signed a series of energy co-operation deals with Turkey. Last week, Yildiz said the Turkish state could take as much as a 25 percent-stake in the plant if the company lowers the price.
The suggestion however has raised questions on whether modifying the financial terms now will amount to unfair competition as other companies might have liked to participate under such conditions.
Yildiz insisted the tender's legal terms allowed for a partnership between the company and the Turkish state, adding that Ankara would make its decision on whether to go ahead with the project in mid-September. The project envisages the construction of a 4,800-megawatt nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, in the Mediterranean province of Mersin. Earlier plans to build a nuclear reactor there were scrapped in 2000 amid financial difficulties and protests from environmentalists in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.