Russia and Turkey signed an agreement to construct and operate Turkey’s first nuclear power plant at the Akkuyu site in the southern Turkish province of Mersin in May 2010. The plant is expected to produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours a year.
Turkey will grant a status of a "strategic investment" to the nuclear power plant, Yildirim said during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
"As for the Akkuyu NPP, we have made the decision to give it a strategic status. We will speed up needed processes… We will do our utmost for timely implementation," Yildirim said.
He also said that Turkey aims to make all necessary decisions to implement the Akkuyu project.
Russian Prime Minister Medvedev said that Turkey is actively working on the launch of the first reactor of the nuclear power plant in 2023.
