Turkey's energy minister said Friday that Canadian company Candu had applied to build the country's second nuclear power plant in cooperation with Turkish company EUAS.

"Canada's Candu firm will sign a letter of intent with EUAS... After six months time, we will see if we can agree or not," Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency, before the signing ceremony.

"This is a serious proposal," he added.

The government plans to build three nuclear power plants within five years in hopes of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on foreign energy supplies.

Turkey struck a deal with Russia in 2010 to build the country's first power plant at Akkuyu in the southern Mersin province.

The government plans to build a second reactor in northern Turkey, near the Black Sea city of Sinop. But it has not yet announced a location for a third reactor.

Ankara is negotiating with a number of countries including South Korea, China and Japan for the second power plant.

On April 9, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on an official visit to Beijing, oversaw the signing of two nuclear agreements with China.

One of the accords signed was a letter of intent between China's National Energy Administration and the Turkish energy ministry for further nuclear cooperation.

Bulgaria wants to extend life of sole nuclear plant
Sofia (AFP) April 20, 2012 - Bulgaria said on Friday it was considering extending by 20 years the operational life of its sole nuclear power plant, at Kozloduy, near the Romanian border.

The plant, which currently operates two pressurized water reactors with a total output of 2,000 megawatts, has asked Russian company Rosenergoatom and French firm EDF to conduct a safety review.

An extension to their operational life will depend on this safety review, the government said in a statement.

The plant's two reactors are currently due to come off line in 2017 and 2019, after nearly 30 years in service.

In March, Bulgaria said it was abandoning a project for a new 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant at Belene, on the Danube, to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport.

A 1,000-megawatt reactor, destined for Belene and which the government says is mostly paid for, is to be installed at Kozloduy instead, though it was not immediately known if this will replace one of the existing reactors.

European Union member Bulgaria is almost totally dependent on Russia for its gas and oil supplies.