Forbes, NY
Feb 18 2008

Areva declares interest in Turkey nuclear plant project
02.18.08, 1:25 PM ET

ISTANBUL (Thomson Financial) – French nuclear giant Areva said it is
interested in a planned tender for the construction of Turkey’s first
nuclear power plant.

‘We are going to meet the (Turkish) energy minister (Hilmi Guler) and
we will clearly indicate to him that the Areva (other-otc: ARVCF.PK –
news – people ) company is interested,’ Gabriel Saltarelli, head of
the company’s commercial affairs in Central and Eastern Europe, told
reporters.

‘We are going to give it all we have got and hang on to demonstrate
that it is possible to work in Turkey despite difficult political
conditions,’ said Saltarelli.

He and other leading French business figures were in Turkey
accompanying France’s junior Trade Minister Herve Norelli on a
three-day visit.

French-Turkish ties took a serious blow in 2001 when the French
parliament recognized as genocide the World War 1 mass killings of
Armenians in Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire.

France’s hostility towards extending Turkey full membership of the
European Union has further soured bilateral ties.

Novelli said that Turkey’s nuclear ambition was one of the topics he
will discuss with energy minister Guler when the two meet in Ankara
on Tuesday.

‘What interests me now is that the ambitious Turkish nuclear
programme will provide an opportunity for French companies, and I
think here of Areva, to attract the attention of Turkish friends,’ he
said.

The Turkish government is expected to announce on February 21 the
tender for the country’s first nuclear power plant that will be
constructed at a controversial location near the Mediterranean coast,
opposed by environmentalists for its proximity to a faultline.

But Saltarelli and Novelli both said that they were informed the
tender had been postponed to a later date for unknown reasons.

The Turkish energy ministry was not immediately available for
comment.

Turkey plans to build three nuclear plants with a total capacity of
about 5,000 megawatts in hopes of preventing a possible energy
shortage and reducing dependence on foreign supplies.