Türkiye aims for 7,200 MW in nuclear power by 2035: Energy minister

ISTANBUL

Türkiye aims to have 7,200 megawatts of nuclear power by 2035, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said, adding that without nuclear energy the country is unlikely to meet its 2052 net-zero target.

“We need to build two more reactors until 2035 in order to achieve this target,” he told daily Milliyet.

He recalled that Türkiye plans to build two more nuclear power plants in the Black Sea province of Sinop and the Thrace region.

They are holding talks with Russia, South Korea and China regarding the planned nuclear power plants.

Currently, Russia’s Rosatom is building Türkiye’s first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu NPP, in the southern province of Mersin.

"Over the next 20 years, we need to build 4 reactors at Akkuyu and [planned nuclear power plants] in Sinop and the Thrace region each,” Bayraktar said.

The minister also said that during his recent visit to Türkiye German Chancellor Olaf Scholz raised the issue with Siemens which withheld some key parts to be used at the Akkuyu plant.

Scholz also sent a letter to Rosatom regarding the delivery, according to media reports.

“Scholz told our president [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] that Siemens will deliver the parts. But it is now too late for the Russians, who already turned to China [to acquire the parts]. Most probably German-made parts will not be used at Akkuyu,” Bayraktar said.

He noted that Siemens allegedly did not deliver the parts due to sanctions on Russia.

“[Siemens] received the order in 2020, when the Ukraine war did not even start…Rosatom is doing business in Europe and the U.S.,” Bayraktar said.

The construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant was launched in 2018.

The plant will have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts. It will meet about 10 percent of the country’s power consumption, when it becomes fully operational.