South Korea, Turkey sign nuclear deal

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - The state power companies of South Korea and Turkey signed a preliminary deal aimed at building a nuclear power plant in northern Turkey.

Under the deal, the companies will carry out preliminary work and "if a common ground with mutually acceptable conditions emerges, the main agreement between the two governments will be signed", Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The protocol was inked by officials from EUAS of Turkey and Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), which in December won a contract to build four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates as part of an international consortium.

Turkey remains open to proposals from other companies if better terms are offered for the plant in Sinop, on Turkey's northern Black Sea coast, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.

"If any company from the United States, Canada, Japan, France makes a proposal, we are open to work similarly with them," Taner said, according to Anatolia news agency.

Turkey would like KESCO to shorten the preperatory stage of the project, which the company estimates will take up to two years, he said, adding that the South Koreans will have a Turkish partner if the project progresses.

Turkey signed a similar preliminary deal with Russia in January for a nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, on the country's Mediterranean coast.

"We want Turkey to acquire nuclear power plants (with a capacity) of at least 8,000 to 10,000 megawatts. Therefore, the work for Akkuyu and Sinop should start and go simultaneously," Yildiz said.

The objective is to have nuclear plants up and running in at least two regions in 2023, he added.

The deals with Russia and South Korea come as part of renewed Turkish efforts to acquire atomic energy after an initial tender to build the country's first nuclear power plant failed last year.

The tender — won by the sole bidder, a consortium led by Russia's state nuclear giant Atomstroyexport — was cancelled in November after a court scrapped parts of the regulation governing the process.

The tender had been under fire since it emerged that the consortium offered above-market prices for supplying electricity to the Turkish grid.

The auction was held in September 2008, amid global financial turbulence, with Ankara rejecting requests by interested companies for a postponement.

Turkey plans to build three nuclear power plants in hopes of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on foreign supplies but the project is fiercely opposed by environmentalists.

Ankara abandoned an earlier plan to build a nuclear plant at Akkuyu in 2000 amid a severe financial crisis and protests from environmentalists in Turkey, as well as in neighbouring Greece and Cyprus.