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A Japan-led public-private consortium is set to abandon a Turkish nuclear power project that had been touted as a model for Tokyo's export of infrastructure, Nikkei said it had learned on December 4.
The delayed project's construction costs have ballooned to around 5 trillion yen ($44bn), nearly double the original estimate, making it difficult for lead builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and its partners to continue with the plans, it added.
The increase was due to heightened safety requirements in the wake of the 2011 meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The recent severe fall in the Turkish lira has also contributed to the cost increases.
The Japanese and Turkish governments agreed the project in 2013. An alliance of Japanese and French businesses centred on Mitsubishi Heavy was created to construct four reactors in the city of Sinop on the Black Sea. Initial plans saw construction starting in 2017, with the first reactor coming online in 2023.
Mitsubishi Heavy submitted a revised cost estimate to the Turkish government in a late-July report, according to Nikkei. Though the company worked to rethink the overall costs, apparently no compromise could be reached with Turkey on financing terms, as well as prices for the electricity generated by the plant, the newspaper reported.
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