Turkey hopes for physical start-up of Akkuyu NPP's first unit within several weeks

ANTALYA. Nov 13 (Interfax) - Work on the physical start-up of the first power unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Turkey may begin within several weeks, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said at World Atomic Days.

"I hope that within the next few weeks-not months, but weeks-we'll be able to carry out the physical start-up of Turkey's first nuclear reactor, at Akkuyu," he said.

Russia's Rosatom corporation is hoping to complete the physical start-up of the first reactor of the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey by New Year, in December, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev told journalists in the middle of October.

"As for the physical start-up, we are on course for the scheduled date. This is roughly the second half of December," he said.

Asked about bringing investors into the project, he said that "there is progress." "So far, we have developed a range of approaches, a sort of menu for working with Turkish investors. And the choice within this menu, of course, rests primarily with the Turkish government," he said.

Rosatom is building Turkey's first NPP, Akkuyu, in the Mersin province. The plant will operate four 1200MW reactor units.

Rosatom is negotiating the sale of a 49% stake in the Akkuyu NPP project, Akkuyu Nuclear JSC Board Chairman Anton Dedusenko told Bloomberg earlier. Talks are underway with Turkish and foreign investors, and the closer the launch of the first power unit, the more investors are coming, the agency quoted him as saying.

"The possible sale of a 49% stake in the Akkuyu NPP project is stipulated by the intergovernmental agreement on the project concluded in 2010," Rosatom has told Interfax.

"The negotiating process is ongoing; we are discussing opportunities with potential partners, including Turkish companies. According to the same intergovernmental agreement, the selection of potential partners requires mandatory approval from the Turkish side," it said.

In the summer of 2017, Rosatom signed a term sheet for the sale of 49% of Akkuyu Nuclear to Cengiz-Kolin-Kalyon. However, in February 2018, they withdrew from the project. The Anadolu news agency said the companies were unable to come to an agreement on the commercial aspects of the NPP construction. Rosatom's new potential partner in the project was then named as the Turkish state energy holding EUAS, with which negotiations were ongoing.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez told reporters at a forum in Moscow in October 2019 that EUAS would decide on the purchase of a stake in the Akkuyu NPP project after completing its assessment. He said the holding company had not yet reached a decision because the project was very large and costly. Furthermore, an asset assessment is required. The head of Rosatom had previously told reporters that the Turkish state energy holding had bid for a 10% stake in the Akkuyu NPP project.

It was also previously reported that investors from the Middle East had expressed interest in the asset.