Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources announced that the country’s first nuclear power plant will begin operating in 2025 once tests begin on the first nuclear reactor at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, built in the Mediterranean province of Mersin, on the country’s southern coast.
In statements reported yesterday in Turkish media, Alparslan Bayraktar said that the first nuclear fuel is scheduled to be loaded into Akkuyu’s 90% completed reactor No. 1 in 2025, after which power production testing will begin.
Bayraktar added that the construction of the four atomic reactors that Akkuyu will eventually have is progressing rapidly: ‘By the end of 2028, we will gradually commission all four reactors, and we will cover 10% of our electricity needs on a carbon-neutral basis.
‘We are a country with a growing economy, exports and industry. Our electricity demand will continue to grow, as it has for the last 20 years. We have made nuclear energy one of the key elements of our energy policy to meet this growing demand on an uninterrupted basis, in harmony with the environment. Turkey must utilise its domestic and renewable energy resources, solar, wind and geothermal energy at the highest level. We must have nuclear energy to meet the growing demand and reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2053,’ the minister said.
Three nuclear power plants: Akkuyu, Sinop and Thrace
‘When I first came (to Akkuyu) in 2016 there was nothing. Now, every time I come I look with pride at the progress that has been made,’ Bayraktar stressed, recalling that some 30,000 people are working every day on the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant.
‘Turkey has to commission (the Sinop nuclear power plant) after Akkuyu in 2050, and after Sinop (the nuclear power plant in) Thrace,’ he said, referring to the country’s two other nuclear power plant projects. ‘And after these, small modular nuclear reactors of about 5,000 megawatts. When we reach 20,000 megawatts (of electricity production from nuclear power) Turkey will supply 10% of its energy needs 30 years from now with atomic energy,’ the minister said.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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