The first power unit of Akkuyu NPP, which is being built by Russia's Rosatom State Corporation, will be launched in 2023, the Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday at the "Green Energy: Current Challenges" panel, held on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"Electricity demand in Turkey has tripled over the past 20 years, and we expect it to continue growing over the next 20 years. The first power unit of Akkuyu NPP will be launched as early as next year," the minister stressed.
Bayraktar noted that after the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement, Turkey will have to decarbonize its economy by 2050. "In this context, we attach great importance to natural gas and the development of nuclear energy," he added.
The Akkuyu nuclear power plant is a nuclear power plant on Turkey's southern coast. It is being built under a Russian project that includes the construction and commissioning of four power units with VVER-1200-type reactors. The agreement on the construction of the station was signed in May 2010. Today, the Akkuyu power plant construction site is one of the largest nuclear construction projects in the world. More than 13 thousand people work on the construction site every day, and more than 1,000 units of construction equipment and vehicles are involved.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Rosatom
Based on materials from TASS