Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear plant to break ground Tuesday

By Firdevs Yuksel and Huseyin Erdogan

ANKARA (AA) - The groundbreaking ceremony of Turkey's first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), will be held in southern province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast on Tuesday.

The Akkuyu NPP will be built by Russian State Nuclear Energy Agency Rosatom and will compose of four units each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

In the first phase of construction, two units are planned with a capacity of 2,400 megawatts.

The plant, with a total investment cost of about $20 billion, will have a working life of 8,000 hours per year.

According to preliminary evaluations, 35-40 percent of the plant's construction could be undertaken by Turkish companies potentially providing added value to the economy by about $6-$8 billion.

The Akkuyu NPP will produce 35 billion kilowatts of electricity at full capacity, which will cover more than 10 percent of Turkey's electricity needs, or equivalent to the electricity demand of Istanbul.

The plant has an operational date set for the first reactor by 2023 while the plant is expected to be up and running at full capacity by 2025.

During the peak period of the plant's construction, about 10,000 people will be employed, while approximately 3,500 people will be provided with job opportunities in the operation phase.

Moreover, 248 Turkish students were educated in Russia to work at the plant. Thirty-five of these students graduated last month after 6.5 years of education.

An intergovernmental agreement for Akkuyu was signed between Russia and Turkey in 2010.