Rosatom has invited Electricite de France SA (EDF) to help build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant as the Russian state atomic power company seeks partners for its new reactors. Rosatom is ready to reduce its stakes in the planned Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey and the Baltic plant in Russia to as much as 51 percent from 100 percent now, Vladislav Bochkov, a spokesman for the Moscow-based company said.

“Rosatom is ready for a strategic partnership with all major energy companies, including EDF,” Bochkov said. He confirmed comments by Rosatom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Nikolai Spassky reported in French daily Les Echos on May 6.

Turkey imported more than $60 billion in energy last year and is seeking ways to improve energy efficiency, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in April. A single nuclear plant would reduce Turkey’s current-account deficit, the third-largest in the world last year, by about $3 billion, he said. Rosatom may also extend cooperation with France’s Areva SA (AREVA), Bochkov said. “We are ready to cooperate with all suppliers or equipment and services, including with Areva, on a tender basis,” he said.

Rosatom owns 100% of the Akkuyu construction project. Intergovernmental agreement for cooperation in the sphere of construction and operation was signed in 2010. The General Contractor is Atomstroyexport, Rosatom’s engineering company. The project includes four VVER-type reactors, 1200 MW each. The construction is planned to be done on the BOO basis; the NPP will be able to produce 35 trillion kWh of energy a year.