Turkey Amenable to South Korea's Nuclear Energy Proposals

Turkey’s Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan told reporters during a meeting with South Korean Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong-Kyung in Seoul, "My ministry and the Turkish government are open to every proposal by South Korean companies over the issue of nuclear power plants."

Turkey is expected to attract new investment from South Korea totaling $2.5 billion following the anticipated signing of a free trade agreement between the countries soon, Turkey’s Anadolu Ajansi reported.

Caglayan told journalists, “More investments will come to Turkey under the FTA. We have solved many problems during the visit. We have removed the obstructions in front of the FTA to a great extend. Hyundai earlier said it could not invest in Turkey as there was not a FTA. A Free Trade Agreement will enable many South Korean companies to invest in Turkey."

Turkey intends to build two nuclear plants, one in Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast, to be constructed by Russia's state-owned atomic power company ROSATOM with an estimated cost around $20 billion. The Akkuyu facility’s construction will start in two years, with its first reactor planned to come online and begin generating electricity in 2018. Turkey’s second nuclear plant is planned to be built in the Black Sea province of Sinop. Turkey had been negotiating with Japan's Tokyo Electric Power company, the owner and operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima facility, which last week informed Turkey that it had withdrawn from the project, opening the way for potential South Korean involvement.

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com