Turkey, South Korea sign protocol on nuclear power plant

"We have to produce at least 10 percent of our energy from nuclear plants by 2020'' Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said during the signature ceremony in Istanbul.

Two countries signed the protocol on the sidelines of a Turkish-South Korean Business Forum.

"We will set up working groups and try to prepare an agreement within three or four months," Yildiz said.

South Korea actually has 20 nuclear power plants, and is constructing eight others in its territories. It aims to raise its nuclear energy to 40 percent till 2020.

Turkey is also cooperating with the Russian Federation to construct a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu hamlet of the southern province of Mersin.

Turkey has long been eager to build nuclear power plants.

A Turkish-Russian consortium led by Russia's Atomstroyexport had been the only bidder in a 2008 tender to build country's first nuclear power plant. However, Turkey's state-run electricity wholesaler TETAS canceled the tender in November 2009.

On January 13, Turkey and Russian Federation signed a joint declaration on cooperation in establishment of nuclear power plant in Turkey within the framework of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's formal visit to the Russian capital of Moscow.

Executives of the two countries had said they would sign an intergovernmental deal on establishment of nuclear power plant in Turkey if they reached a compromise.


/World Bulletin/