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Russia seeking partners for building Akkuyu NPP in Turkey

27 April 2016 16:47 (UTC+04:00)
Russia seeking partners for building Akkuyu NPP in Turkey

By Aynur Karimova

Russia has announced that it is looking for a partner in Turkey for the construction of Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP).

The Russian side is currently in talks with largest Turkish construction companies on the issue of their participation in the construction process, Bloomberg HT reported on April 27.

The Turkish construction company Cengiz İnşaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. has already showed its interest in the construction of the NPP.

If the Turkish company decides to build the NPP together with Russia, the share of its participation in the project will amount to 49 percent.

Construction of Akkuyu NPP in Turkey will start in 2016 and the country had not abandoned its construction, which is expected to be completed in 2020.

The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkey on cooperation in the fields of construction and operation of the country's first NPP Akkuyu near the city of Mersin in southern Turkey was signed in 2010.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the offshore structures of the Akkuyu NPP was held in April 2015.

The project cost nears $20 billion. The Akkuyu plant is projected to generate about 35 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

After the deterioration of relations between the two countries due to the SU-24 incident, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government decree on economic measures against Turkey. However such large projects as Turkish Stream and Akkuyu NPP were not reflected in the list of these measures.

However, experts believe that like the Turkish Stream, this project has also been removed from the agenda.

Earlier, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that if Russia doesn't resume the talks on constructing the Akkuyu plant, there are countries which can build it.

It is not ruled out that if this project is cancelled, Turkey can discuss the plant's construction with France and Japan.

The Akkuyu NPP will become the first NPP in the country. The second NPP in Turkey will be built in Sinop province on the Black Sea coast.

The agreement on constructing the plant in Sinop was signed between Turkey and Japan in 2013. It is planned to complete the project's implementation by 2023.

Meanwhile, China and the U.S. have expressed interest in constructing the third NPP in Turkey, Sabah newspaper reported.

Turkey has already started talks on constructing the third NPP with the U.S. Westinghouse Electric Company and China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC).

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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