Nuclear fuel mock-ups sent to Akkuyu

MERSİN

Rosatom has announced that it manufactured and dispatched a shipment of nuclear fuel mock-ups for the first unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.

The fuel dummies are shipped together with mock-ups of control rods and tools for incoming inspections of nuclear fuel, the Russian company said in a statement.

Prior to the launch of a new power unit, dummies of fuel assemblies, as well as mock-ups of control rods, get loaded into the reactor core and then unloaded in order to test the key systems of the facility, it added.

The operation of the nuclear power plant’s first unit is due to start in 2023. All the units are set to come online by the end of 2026.

The plant, which will have four power reactors upon completion, will have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts. It will produce 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually when it becomes fully operational.

An intergovernmental agreement for the Akkuyu NPP was signed between Türkiye and Russia in May 2010.

The nuclear power plant’s groundbreaking ceremony was held in April 2018.

The reactor core of a Generation III+ power unit consists of 163 fuel assemblies with uranium fuel, Rosatom said, adding that the shipment of the refueling machine to the first power unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled for 2023.