S. Korea opts not to bid for Turkish nuclear reactor project

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has opted not to bid for the construction
of nuclear reactors in Turkey, citing unfavorable business conditions, a source
at the state-run power company said Friday.
The Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) source, who declined to be identified,
said conditions offered by Ankara were too unfavorable to accept.
"Requests by prospective bidders to ease some preconditions were not reflected,
making it hard for companies to take part in the bid," the KEPCO insider said.
He said that if Turkey calls for another bid and makes changes to some conditions
in the contract, KEPCO will try again to win the deal. At present, only Russia's
nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly Atomstroyexport has submitted
a bid, which it did earlier in the week.
KEPCO, which had formed a tie-up with Turkey's Enka Group, had hoped to win the
deal to showcase its prowess in the atomic energy field.
The power service provider, however, said that because the project calls for an
independent power producer (IPP) to construct, own and operate the facilities,
there are greater inherent risks compared to power plants that are turned over to
the government after completion.
It said that conditions like the operator taking full responsibility for all
damages caused by problems at the power plant and the government's reluctance to
guarantee payment if users do not pay electricity bills were key issues that had
to be resolved.
In addition to the KEPCO-Enka consortium, companies from Canada, China, the
United States and Japan, which also expressed interest, did not submit bids.
The deal calls for the building of three or four commercial reactors generating a
combined 5,00 megawatt electric (MWe) of power. A commercial reactor usually
costs around US$1 billion to build.