On 3 May 2013, the then Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzō Abe, signed a deal over US$22 billion for the construction of the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant that would have been carried out by a joint venture consortium of Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and French Areva.[1] Four Atmea reactor would have been used, to enter service from 2023 to 2028.[9][8]