Turkey’s Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning has approved an Environmental Assessment Report (CED) regarding Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, Turkish daily ‘Zaman’ reports.
The CED includes 3,000 pages of details regarding the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, whose reactor is to be built beginning in 2016 in the Mediterranean province of Mersin. The plant, which is expected to cost an estimated $20 billion, will be built and operated by the Russian state-run energy firm Rosatom, which signed an agreement for the construction of the plant with Turkey’s Energy Ministry in 2011. Rosatom officials stated that the plant will be operational for 100 years.
After construction is completed the plant is expected to generate 35 billion kWh of electricity.
The Akkuyu plant is the first of three nuclear power plants planned for construction in Turkey, which is attempting to reduce its energy imports by increasing domestic production. Turkey is heavily dependent on natural gas imports from Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan for a large portion of its electricity production.
In addition, the paper reports that Turkey’s Renaissance Holding and Russia’s state-backed private equity fund have agreed to jointly invest $400 million in Russia, in sectors such as healthcare and commercial real estate.
The nuclear power project has been the subject of concern by green lobbyists who say that the new plant will impact on the ecology of the area.
