Turkey’s bid to build its first nuclear reactor has had more comebacks than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. Every time you think it’s down and beaten, up it climbs again and continues lumbering and clanking along, looking increasingly pathetic as bits fall off.

POW! The bidding process for the contract to build the reactor receives just one bid. It’s down but not out. Up it gets…

CRASH! That one bid says the electricity produced by the new plant would cost 21 cents per kilowatt hour - three times the current average price of electricity in Turkey. Surely this is the end…? No, it doesn’t know when to quit…

BAM! The bid also has technical shortcomings and stipulates a reliance on Russian nuclear fuel. Down it goes for the third time.

But you know what? With a stoic ‘I’ll be back’, the plan refuses to die and is here again for yet another sequel. This time the story has a new hero but it’s all so very familiar. Who looks like they will step up and save this seemingly-doomed plan? Yep, you guessed it, the Turkish taxpayer…

A state energy company may now become a partner in the project to boost investment and ensure its completion, [the Sabah newspaper] said, citing unidentified government officials.

It’s a story we’ve seen over and over again: the nuclear industry, a towering giant that isn’t as impressive or as cool as it looks, having to be rescued by the tiny but brave ordinary underdog public. It’s time for a new script.