ISTANBUL -- Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday a Canadian company has a real shot at winning a lucrative tender to supply nuclear energy to Turkiye -- a prospect he said was remote a year ago.
Carney was meeting with Turkish business leaders in Istanbul Friday, a day after he announced a new strategic partnership between Canada and Turkiye to deepen co-operation on a range of files.
Energy is one of the pillars of that agreement and Carney said the AtkinsRealis bid to supply two planned Turkish power plants with the Candu nuclear reactor now has “good chances” of succeeding. He added it would have been a long-shot a year ago.
“We’re in negotiations, and those negotiations are getting more intense. Probably from here to the end of the year, or around COP 31, it will be a decision for the Turkish government,” Carney told reporters in French.
COP31 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference, set for Antalya, Turkiye from Nov. 9 to 20.
“Candu has a chance,” Carney added. “Yes, there’s competition. But we have the quality of the technology, of the financing, and a true partnership with business in this country with Canada.”
Ian Edwards, president and CEO of AtkinsRealis, confirmed in a LinkedIn post on Friday that he is also in Turkey this week.
He thanked Carney and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, who is also on the trip, for “their partnership and continued support in advancing this important opportunity for Canadian nuclear energy.”
Edwards said AtkinsRealis is conducting a feasibility study for the potential build-out of Candu reactors at Sinop, a city in Turkey on the Black Sea proposed for the site of a new power plant.
In June, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand welcomed her Turkish counterpart to Canada. During the trip, Turkish officials toured the Darlington nuclear facility in Ontario.
Canada’s nuclear strategy was released a week before the June trip.
The plan looks to sell more Candu reactors around the world and sets a goal of entering at least four new international markets by 2040. It also seeks to “engage six to 10 new nuclear entrant markets over a 15-year horizon, cementing Canada as their partner of choice.”
The push to sell Candu to new markets is an attempt to establish Canada as a reliable uranium export partner and to use nuclear energy as a geopolitical lever.
The prime minister said while contract decisions are ultimately made business-to-business, his role in Istanbul is to share how the Canadian market has become more welcoming to foreign firms and investors.
“We’ve made some fairly big changes in terms of the tax regime in Canada, the speed with which investment decisions are (being made), the way we’re partnering with a broader group of countries ... those are a lot of changes at the same time,” Carney said.
“You have to go out and explain to people what’s changed.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
By Craig Lord
With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa
