Asian firms vie to build Turkey’s second nuclear plant

Top contenders are a Chinese company and Japanese-French consortium.

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and a consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Group and France’s Areva SA are competing to build Turkey’s second nuclear power station at the Black Sea province of Sinop.

The Turkish government has come to the end of the process, and will finalize a decision soon. Japanese media said the Japanese-French consortium was on track to win the deal. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would likely sign the deal with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan during a visit to Turkey next week.

Earlier Japanese reports claimed the Franco-Japanese group had clinched the deal, but Turkey said it was too early to declare a winner to build the project.

The 5,000 megawatt nuclear power plant is Turkey’s second after the plant in Mersin currently under construction. Turkey’s second nuclear power plant is expected to require an investment between US$22 billion and US$25 billion.