Nuclear power: Russia could also build second Turkish nuclear power plant
The first nuclear reactor is put into operation in Turkey. It was built by Rosatom, and the company could also be selected for another site.
Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev (l.) and Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar.
(Image: Rosatom)
The second nuclear power plant in Turkey could, like the first, be built by the Russian state-owned company Rosatom. This is indicated by talks between Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev and Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar. They met last week to discuss the imminent commissioning of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which has been under construction since 2018.
During the meeting, Likhachev and Bayraktar also discussed the possibility of having another nuclear power plant built by Rosatom, according to a Rosatom press release. No details were disclosed. The Russian company would displace the South Korean company Kepco, which submitted an offer to Turkey for four APR-1400 reactors in 2023. At the time, Ignaeda was considered as a possible location in addition to Sinop. The Rosatom announcement now mentions Sinop, which is located roughly in the middle of Turkey's Black Sea coast.
10 percent of the electricity demand
Planning for a second Turkish nuclear power plant has been underway since 2012, with concrete plans for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant north-east of Ankara dating back to 2010. Four pressurized water reactors of the type VVER V-509 with a total gross output of 4800 MW are being built there. The operators claim that the nuclear power plant is located in a seismically safe region. In 2011, the Turkish Association of Electrical Engineers pointed out that the Akkuyu nuclear power plant was only 25 km away from a seismic fault.
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Since April of this year, work has been underway - a year late - to commission the first reactor of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. At the beginning of this month, media reports stated that commissioning had been further delayed as a result of the sanctions against Russia. Rosatom plans to have all four reactors of the nuclear power plant in operation by 2028, when they will cover 10 percent of Turkey's electricity needs. The Turkish government is talking to the US company Westinghouse about other nuclear power projects, such as possible small modular reactors, and China is also in talks with Turkey, Bloomberg reported.
(anw)
