TURKEY: Nuclear tender deadline extension requested

06 June 1997
NEWS

The 30 June tender deadline for a contract to build Turkey's first nuclear power station at Akkuyu on the southern Mediterranean coast may be postponed, according to officials of the client, Turkish Electricity Generation & Transmission Corporation (TEAS). All three prospective bidders who attended a second and final briefing with TEAS on 22 May asked for an extension of two-four months.

The three consortia of foreign and local companies are:

Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Raytheon Corporation, both of the US, with Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and Enka

Canada's AECL, the UK's Kvaerner John Brown and Japan's Hitachi Corporation with Bayindir, Gama and Guris

Franco/German Nuclear Power International with Siemens and Hochtief, both German, the Anglo/French GEC Alsthom, and Garanti Koza, Simko, Sezai Turkes-Feyzi Akkaya and Tekfen.

A fourth prospective group of bidders, led by Italy's Ansaldo Energia, failed to attend the second briefing, and is now considered by TEAS to have lost interest in the project.

Questions from the companies attending the briefing focused on the payment schedule, high performance demands specified in the contracts, an arbitration committee, contract annulment conditions, and compensation for force majeure problems, the officials say.

The contract specifications call for a turnkey project with 100 per cent credit financing. Foreign firms must also take on Turkish contracting partners. A contract worth $1,500 million-2,000 million is expected to be awarded by the end of 1997 for a construction start in 1998. Commissioning of the first unit is scheduled for December 2005, with the others following in 2006.

Two options have been provided in the tender specifications, each for configurations of units of a minimum 600 MW in size. The first and main option is for a total capacity of 800 MW-1,400 MW; the second is for a capacity of up to 2,800 MW. Bidders can choose between three reactor cooling systems: the pressurised water reactor (PWR); the boiling water reactor (BWR); and the pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR).

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