Turkish parliament passes revised nuclear bill

[Alalam News, Reuters, 9 November] Turkey'sparliament has approved a bill allowing for the construction of nuclearpower plants in the country. Legislators amended several technicalprovisions in the original draft, which was approved by parliamentearlier this year but vetoed by former president Ahmet Nacdet Sezer inMay. The measure sets out the legal framework for the plants and thesale of the energy they would produce. The bill allows the governmentto launch tenders for the construction of nuclear power plants,establish a state company to run the plants and to allocate shares toprivate sector companies. It provides for private institutions to buildthe plants if there is no interest from the private sector. Accordingto the law, the qualifications for companies bidding to construct andoperate the potential units would be published within a month. Theconstructing companies would also be responsible for dismantling theplants at the end of their operating lives. The bill will come intoeffect after approval by President Abdullah Gul, who replaced Sezer inAugust. In August 2006, the government said it planned to have threenuclear power plants with a total capacity of 4500 MWe operating by2012-15, a $10.5 billion investment.