NUCLEAR
As part of a policy of expanding its presence outside South Korea, the national utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) has submitted a bid for a 1400 MWe nuclear power project in Turkey.
KEPCO has tendered for the Akkuyu nuclear plant in conjunction with Korea Heavy Industries and Construction, Daewoo Corp and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. The results of the tender will not be announced until April.
The South Korean utility, which recently completed a project in the Philippines, is also preparing to bid for a nuclear power plant in Hungary.
In a separate move, KEPCO has begun talks with ABB aimed at forming a consortium to operate in the Chinese nuclear sector. Representitives from the utility and from ABB’s Combustion Engineering Division have been meeting to hammer out details of a deal.
The companies are eying China’s ambitious nuclear construction programme. The Chinese Government wants to roughly double its total power generating capacity by 2010 and nuclear power is expected to play a key role. KEPCO is currently training Chinese nuclear power plant experts in Seoul.