ANKARA (Sputnik) — Ankara hopes the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Turkey on a Russian project will start in 2017, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said Friday.
"We expect to start the construction of the Akkuyu NPP this year and aim to commission the NPP's first reactor by the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 2023," Albayrak said as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
Russia and Turkey signed an agreement to build and operate Turkey’s first NPP at the Akkuyu site in the southern Turkish Mersin Province in May 2010. The plant is expected to produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The project's cost is estimated at about $20 billion. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim expressed hope on December 6, 2016 that the operation of the Akkuyu NPP's first unit would start by 2023 as planned.
