Commissioning begins at Türkiye’s first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu

​​​​​​​ISTANBUL

Commissioning has begun at the first power unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Türkiye’s inaugural nuclear facility, marking one of the final stages before full operation, the project’s Russian partner said Tuesday.

Anton Dedusenko, chairman of the board of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC and general director of Rusatom Energy International, told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the Nuclear Power Plant Expo and Summit (NPPES) in Istanbul that “all the unit’s systems are undergoing a set of control operations” as part of commissioning.

“The launch of a nuclear power plant unit is a multi-stage operation. We are currently in one of the final stages of preparation for the start of operation of Unit 1,” he said. “All systems and elements of the unit are being brought to a state of operational readiness and checked for compliance with nuclear safety criteria.”

In March, construction and installation works for the first unit were completed. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last month that the commissioning of Unit 1 is expected within a year.

The Akkuyu NPP, located in southern Mersin province, is being built with Russian support under the Build-Own-Operate model, a first in the global nuclear sector.

It will feature four Russian-designed VVER-1200 generation 3+ reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.