Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said he hopes to start the first unit at Akkuyu by the end of the year, while talks continue with Russia, China and South Korea on two more plants.

According to reports after Takvim's briefing, Bayraktar said there are still some sanctions-related issues to be overcome, but the goal remains to produce the first electricity from the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2024, with all four units scheduled to be completed by 2028.

That would meet 10 percent of the country's electricity needs, but he said it was also continuing discussions with Russia and South Korea about Turkey's planned second nuclear power plant, in Sinop, as the country needs 20 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2050. He reportedly said that Rosatom "has gained a lot of experience from the Akkuyu project, so we also want to extend it to Sinop." We will continue to negotiate with both parties."

The 4800 MWe Akkuyu nuclear power plant, located in the southern province of Mersin, is Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Rosatom is building four VVER-1200 reactors under the so-called BOO(build-own-operate) model. Construction of the first unit began in 2018. In addition to the planned second nuclear power plant in Sinop, there are also plans to build a third nuclear power plant in the Thrace region in the northwest of the country.

Regarding the Thracian project, Bayraktar was reported to have said that the talks with China, which he had described last September as being at an "important moment", were at a "very serious" stage.

Alexei Likhachev, Rosatom's director general, did not rule out a Russian bid for the third plant, as well as the Sinop plant - "There will probably be multiple suppliers competing - and we are not afraid of competition," he said. TASS news agency reported last month. He reportedly said that in Sinop, Rosatom and Turkey are discussing the technical design and "economic parameters of the project."

Turkey is also working on plans for small modular reactors with the goal of adding 5 GWe of capacity by 2050, which would mean a total of at least 16 independent SMRS. Editor/Xu Shengpeng