The SinopNuclear Power Plant was a planned nuclear plant located at Sinop in northern Turkey. It would have been the country's second nuclear power plant after the projected Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. The deal for the project on a build-operate-transfer basis was signed between Turkish Prime ministerRecep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on May 3, 2013. The project would have been carried out by Atmea, a joint venture consortium of Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and French Areva. Turkey, being geographically on a highly active earthquake-prone zone, relies on top-level safety know-how and experience of Japanese experts against earthquakes. MHI and Itochu planned to build the power plant, which would have a capacity of around 4,480 MWe. Four generation IIIpressurized water reactors of type ATMEA1 developed by Atmea would have been installed in the nuclear plant. French electric utility company Engie would have been in charge of the operation of the nuclear plant. It was intended that Turkish Electricity Generation Corporation would have 20-45% shares in the nuclear plant. As of June 2015, the total project cost was estimated at approx. $15.8 billion, of which 70% would be debt financed. It was projected that the first unit of Sinop plant would be active by 2023, and the fourth unit would enter service by 2028. As of April 2018, the estimated project cost grew to more than $46 billion. In 2018 an Environmental Impact Assessment application was submitted to the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry. Location and construction licenses are still to be obtained from the Turkey Atomic Energy Agency. In April 2018, Nikkei reported that Itochu would withdraw from the project, while MHI and other investors were continuing the feasibility study through the summer of 2018. The remaining members of the Japanese consortium abandoned the project in December 2018 after a failure to reach agreement with the Turkish government on financing terms. Construction costs had almost doubled to about $44 billion, because of post-Fukushima safety improvements and the fall in the value of the Turkish lira. In 2020 Turkey stated it may hold discussions with other possible suppliers.
