Turkey resolute to fulfill its nuclear ambition

Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz says the country is determined to build a nuclear power plant and will launch a new project to replace a failed tender.

Turkey's energy authorities canceled a 2008 tender won by a Russian-led consortium to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant after a top administrative court suspended parts of the regulation governing the process.

"The fact that the tender was scrapped does not mean that the process is scrapped. Our determination on nuclear power plants is persisting," AFP quoted Yildiz as saying on Saturday.

Yildiz said Ankara could consider involvement of the public sector in a new model for realizing the project.

A consortium led by Atomstroyexport, Russia's state nuclear giant, was the only bidder in the scrapped tender.