EUROPE: Siemens refuses to deliver key components for the first nuclear power plant in Turkey to the Russians from Rosatom
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The construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant is being delayed because German group Siemens Energy refuses to deliver a number of key components to Rosatom, forcing the Russian state-controlled group to look for alternatives in China, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Wednesday. , reports Reuters, quoted by Agerpres.
Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, a 4,800 Megawatt facility, is currently being built by the Russian group Rosatom at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast.
Even if the Russian company has concluded alternative agreements with Chinese companies to produce the respective components, the refusal of the Siemens Energy company will delay the start-up of the first reactor of the Akkuyu plant by several months, Alparslan Bayraktar told the Anadolu news agency.
According to the original timetable, Turkey was to start up its first nuclear reactor in 2023. But this timetable has suffered delays. Last year, nuclear fuel was loaded into the first unit of the Akkuyu plant, writes Agerpres.
In July, the president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, said that Germany does not allow the export of certain components needed for the Akkuyu plant, so those components are blocked in customs. “This is a matter that affects us seriously. I reminded this to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the occasion of our bilateral meetings,” Erdogan said upon returning from the NATO summit in Washington.
Turkey plans to build more than 20 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050. In addition to the Akkuyu plant, a second plant is planned to be built on the Black Sea coast in the Sinope region, and a third nuclear plant is expected to be built in in the Thrace region of northwestern Turkey.
