Site work to start for Turkish plant

25 February 2011

Engineering and survey work at the site of the planned Akkuyu nuclear power plant on Turkey's Mediterranean coast will begin next month, the Russian supplier of the plant has said. 

 

Saint Petersburg-based AtomEnergoProekt (AEP) reported that it has completed the registration of the contract to carry out engineering and surveying for Turkey's first nuclear power plant. A team of geologists and engineers is scheduled to leave for Turkey in early March, the company added.

 

Akkuyu (AEP)
How the first two VVER units at Akkuyu could look (Image: AEP)

 

The engineering and survey work is expected to be completed by mid-July 2012. The results will be used to develop design documents for the preparation of applications for basic permits for the construction of the nuclear power plant.

 

Under an intergovernmental agreement signed by the two countries in May 2010, Turkey's first nuclear power plant will be built, owned and operated by Russia. The deal covers the construction of four 1200 MWe VVER units at the Akkuyu site.

 

Russian state nuclear enterprise Rosatom will create a project company subsidiary, which will initially be 100% Russian-owned. In the longer term, Russia may sell up to 49% of the company to other investors from Turkey and elsewhere, but will retain the 51% controlling stake. Turkish firm Park Teknik and state generation company Elektrik Uretim AS (EUAS) have been tipped as likely candidates eventually to take up significant shares in the project.

 

The Turkish Electricity Trade and Contract Corporation (TETAS) has guaranteed to purchase a fixed amount of the plant's output (70% of the electricity generated by the first two units and 30% of that from the third and fourth reactors) over the first 15 years of commercial operation at a reported price of 12.35 US cents per kWh, with the rest of the electricity to be sold on the open market by the project company.

 

The reactors are expected to enter service in the period 2018-2021, with the first one due to start up within seven years of receipt of a construction licence and the others following at yearly intervals.

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News