Commissioning has begun at the first power unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Türkiye’s inaugural nuclear facility, marking one of the final stages before full operation, the project’s Russian partner has said.
Anton Dedusenko, chairman of the board of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC and general director of Rusatom Energy International, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Nuclear Power Plant Expo and Summit (NPPES) in Istanbul that “all the unit’s systems are undergoing a set of control operations” as part of commissioning.
“The launch of a nuclear power plant unit is a multi-stage operation. We are currently in one of the final stages of preparation for the start of operation of Unit 1,” he said. “All systems and elements of the unit are being brought to a state of operational readiness and checked for compliance with nuclear safety criteria.”
In March, construction and installation works for the first unit were completed. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last month that the commissioning of Unit 1 is expected within a year.
The Akkuyu NPP, located in southern Mersin province, is being built with Russian support under the Build-Own-Operate model, a first in the global nuclear sector.
It will feature four Russian-designed VVER-1200 generation 3+ reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.
Each of Akkuyu's four reactors is scheduled to start operation one year apart. At full power, the plant is expected to cover about 10 percent of Türkiye's electricity demand and operate for at least 60 years, with a possible 20-year extension.
Alongside Akkuyu, Ankara plans additional nuclear facilities in Sinop and the northwestern Thrace region, targeting 20,000 megawatts of installed nuclear capacity by 2050.
