Turkey announced May 3 that it has selected a Japanese-French consortium to build a nuclear power plant. Though the deal is still in the preliminary stages, the power plant — which would have a production capacity of 4,500-5,000 megawatts — would be located on the Sinop Peninsula on Turkey's northern Black Sea coast. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Itochu Corp., along with French utility firm GDF Suez, make up the consortium that beat out China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. in the final bidding round. The plan calls for the installation of four Atmea-designed 1,100-megawatt reactors (a smaller and less expensive version of the third-generation European Pressurized Reactors) jointly developed by French nuclear engineering firm Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. GDF Suez would operate the plant with a local Turkish partner. The site of the plant would be near the North Anatolian Fault, where the epicenters of Turkey's biggest earthquakes in recent decades have been located. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted specifically that the decision to grant Japan the contract arose from the two countries' shared proneness to earthquakes and Japan's ability to give first-hand advice on security and safety measures. Turkey in many ways is an obvious candidate for nuclear power. Turkey is the world's 17th-largest economy by gross domestic product, and though the depressed European market will temper its growth, its industrial development and population of 73 million are rising steadily and are thus driving up electricity consumption. Since most of Turkey is located in seismically active zones, it has historically been difficult for the Turkish government to win the public's confidence in moving ahead with nuclear proposals. For example, in 2010, Turkey signed a deal with a Russian-led consortium led by Atomstroyexport and Inter RAO to build a $20 billion 4.8-gigawatt power plant near Turkey's southern coastal town of Akkuyu, though this project has been stalled in negotiations and may well remain there. Nonetheless, under the Justice and Development Party, Turkey's government has the political continuity and popular support to carry its nuclear plans forward, even if it still faces growing constraints in trying to finance these costly projects, especially with Europe in economic decline.
