TOKYO, April 4- The alliance of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and France’s Areva SA is leading in the race to win a Turkish nuclear power plant deal, Japan’s JIJI Press reported informed sources as saying Thursday. It would be the first time for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry to construct a nuclear plant abroad.
The company is currently engaged in nuclear plant design in the United States while aiming to win nuclear plant deals in Jordan, Vietnam and Finland. Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and Areva, in tandem with the Japanese government, are promoting their jointly developed medium-size pressurised water reactor, ATMEA1, for Turkey’s plans to build four nuclear reactors on the coast of the Black Sea by 2023.
Chinese and South Korean makers have also been in negotiations for the Turkish project. Meanwhile, Toshiba Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had initially teamed up in bidding for a deal on the Turkish nuclear plant project. However, TEPCO has dropped out in the wake of the nuclear accident at its disaster-hit Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant in March 2011, leaving Toshiba negotiating alone.
According to JIJI Press, Japanese makers are eager to expand business overseas, as no nuclear plant construction is expected at home for a while following the Fukushima No 1 plant accident.
BERNAMA
