The first reactor of Turkey's first nuclear power plant is undergoing intensive testing and will soon be put into operation, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said today, quoted by the Anadolu Agency, reported DPA, BTA reported.
Bayraktar presented a review of Turkey's energy policy, prepared jointly with the International Energy Agency. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed expanding joint projects in nuclear energy in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the agency reminds.
Turkey's first nuclear power plant is being built near the village of Akkuyu in the Mediterranean province of Mersin. Ankara and Moscow signed an agreement for the project in May 2010, but delays followed.
Russian state company "Rosatom" is leading the $20 billion project. The first of four reactors was originally scheduled to start operating in early 2025. When completed, the plant is expected to meet about 10 percent of Turkey's electricity needs, roughly equivalent to the consumption of the Istanbul area. At a meeting with Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan last week, Erdogan announced that initial steps had been taken to build other nuclear power plants once Akkuyu becomes operational. Turkey is expanding its nuclear power to reduce its dependence on energy imports and decarbonize energy production, DPA reported. The opposition-affiliated Anka news agency reported, citing Energy Ministry officials, that a facility for storing the resulting nuclear waste was planned in the town of Polatlı near Ankara. The facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year. 2035. The government has not yet confirmed these plans.