Rosatom expects to receive Akkuyu NPP license, launch startup operations in 2026 - CEO

MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - Russia's Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation expects to receive an operating license for Unit 1 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Turkey and launch startup operations in 2026, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev told reporters.

"Our objective is to faster get through this stage [the current stage of work], receive an operating license and, accordingly, launch startup operations before the end of this year," Likhachev said on Sunday.

Likhachev said in early September that Rosatom is now "one step away from" the Akkuyu NPP's physical launch.

"We are doing everything to make it happen this year, as the plant, I mean Unit 1, will begin its commercial operation next year, as we have promised our Turkish friends," he said in an interview with the Vesti news program.

Rosatom is building Turkey's first Akkuyu NPP in Mersin province. The NPP is to operate four 1,200 MW power units.