Turkey looks to Russia to build second nuclear power plant

Turkey hopes to expand its partnership with Russia’s state-owned Rosatom to develop its second nuclear power plant in Sinop on the southern coast of the Black Sea, a senior government official has said.

The Russian company is working on the country’s first Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) in Mersin province on the Mediterranean coast. The project cost is estimated at $20 billion. 

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“We have a great potential for renewables and energy efficiency, but we absolutely need to add nuclear energy into our energy mix,” energy and natural resources minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a speech at an energy event in Sochi, Russia, according to a report in the Daily Sabah newspaper.

The construction of four reactors in the Akkuyu NPP will generate 7.2 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2035 and 20 GW by 2050, the minister said.  

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The country’s nuclear energy targets are compatible with global nuclear energy targets, he said. Turkey aims to reach its decarbonisation goal by 2053.

Bayraktar also disclosed that the government was negotiating with China to establish the third nuclear plant in Thrace province. 

“We need to pass the agreement phase and move on to the construction,” the report said, citing the minister.