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Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin, Turkey. Photo/Wikicommons
The two countries continue to expand energy cooperation and advance Turkey’s growing energy needs.
According to a Bloomberg report on Friday (29/7/2022), senior Turkish officials familiar with the matter said Russian state-owned company Rosatom sent about $5 billion last week to Turkish firm Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, which is building a nuclear power plant in the southern Turkish city of Mersin.
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A further $15 billion will be transferred over the coming weeks, strengthening the partnership between the company and its affiliates, which began with a partnership agreement signed in 2010.
The project is also being financed by Sberbank and Sovcombank, which were previously Russia’s largest lenders.
According to Turkish officials, project financing is set to cover all the plant’s procurement needs over the next two years.
Under a long-term contract, Rosatom provides the design, construction, maintenance, operation and decommissioning of the Akkuyu power plant, with the first units to be operational in mid-2023.
Three other units and reactors are then planned to start operating one by one every year until 2026 with a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts (MW).
According to Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez, the power plant is estimated to generate 35 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, which will provide about 10% of Turkiye’s domestic electricity needs.
The transfer of funds from Russia and the planned Akkuyu power plant comes more than a week after Egypt announced the first phase of the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant, which Russia and its company Rosatom are also helping.
The development of the Ankara and Cairo nuclear power plants is a new impetus for more diversified and reliable energy sources, especially at a time when much of the world will increasingly experience severe energy shortages amid the transition to “greener” forms of energy away from fossil fuels. fossil.
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