First reactor of Turkey’s first nuclear plant to go online by 2020

ANKARA - Reuters

The first reactor of Turkey’s first nuclear plant, which is planned to be built in the southern province of Akkuyu, Mersin by Russia’s Rosatom, will be online in the midst of 2020, a senior executive of the plant said.

“If everything goes right, we’ll start power generation in the midst of 2020,” said the CEO of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Alexander Superfin.

He noted that the construction license of the plant would most probably be given by Turkey’s Atomic Energy Authority in 2015.

“We believe we’ll start the construction at the beginning of 2016,” he said.

Superfin also said the Russian government plans to spend approximately $3 billion for the project until 2015.

“The first $700 million was spent in 2011, and the second $700 million will be available to spend by the end of this year,” he said.

Some 10,000 people will be employed at the construction site alone, and some 2,000 people more will work at the company building, he noted.

All four reactors of the plant have been expected to be online in 2023, but the plant may be delayed at least one year, a source close to the plans said to Reuters two weeks ago, as bureaucratic hurdles hamper the $20 billion project.