September 27 (SeeNews) - The construction of the first unit of Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) will be completed by May 2023, local media reported.
"I have witnessed that the construction of the power plant is progressing rapidly with the efforts of our engineers and workers,” Daily Sabah quoted president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying after he visited the construction site earlier this month.
According to Daily Sabah, the three remaining units of Akkuyu NPP are due to start operation by the end of 2026, at a rate of one per year to ultimately have a total installed capacity of 4,800 MW. The construction of the second unit started in June 2020, while the groundbreaking ceremony of the fourth reactor will take place next year. The plant will have an estimated service life of 60 years with an extension of a further 20 years.
Earlier this year, Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying that the Akkuyu NPP, which is being built by a unit of Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, is expected to produce an estimated 35 billion kWh of electricity per year, meeting around 10% of Turkey's electricity needs.
In 2010, Turkey and Russia signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of the power plant worth an estimated $20 billion.
Turkey now aims to take steps for the construction of a second and third nuclear plants as soon as possible, Daily Sabah quoted Erdogan as saying during his visit to the construction site of Akkuyu's first unit
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