Russia's Rosatom, Turkish Companies Discuss Joint Efforts to Build Sinop NPP in Turkey

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian state-run atomic energy agency Rosatom and its Turkish partners are discussing cooperation in construction of the Sinop nuclear power plant (NPP) project on Turkey's Black Sea coast, Rosatom's head, Alexey Likhachev, said on Wednesday.

"We began negotiations with our Turkish business partners on establishing approaches toward technological alliances, investment policy and development of the Turkish energy market with a future large nuclear power plant in the country," Likhachev noted.

According to the chief of Rosatom, the Sinop nuclear power plant is a very promising project, which is well-known to many nuclear energy specialists around the world.

Russia is now participating in building Turkey's first ever nuclear power plant, the Akkuyu NPP, which will meet up to 10% of the country's energy demand. The first unit of the NPP is expected to be commissioned in 2023, while the remaining three will be connected to the grid by 2026.

The project of the Sinop NPP was initially elaborated by Turkey and Japan in 2013, with Japanese energy corporations withdrawing from it in 2018 amid financial issues. The construction of a nuclear power plant in Sinop has been repeatedly discussed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with latest talks on the matter taking place in Astana last week.