Turkey's energy minister expressed hope on Friday that Turkey would operate two or three nuclear power plants by 2023, Anadolu News Agency reported.
Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said the government was determined to construct nuclear power plants.
"Turkey's energy dependence is around 70-72 percent," Yildiz said during a meeting in Ankara on planned Akkuyu nuclear power plant.
Yildiz said Turkey would need 4,000-5,000-MW power plant p.a. when it was estimated to grow 7-8 percent p.a., and the power plant in Akkuyu was only equal to Turkey's one-year growth.
The minister said only one nuclear power plant would not be sufficient to Turkey. "We hope we would operate two or three power plants by 2023," Yildiz also said.
In May 2010, Turkey and Russia signed a deal for construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, which is expected to cost about 20 billion USD. Russian state-owned atomic power company ROSATOM is likely to start building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2013 and the first reactor is planned to generate electricity in 2018.
Russia will build four 1,200 megawatt units on Akkuyu site, and run the power plant for 60 years. Turkish state-owned electricity corporation has guaranteed to buy a fixed amount of the plant's output over the first 15 years starting from initial commercial operation at a reported price of 12.35 US cents per kWh, with the rest of the electricity to be sold on the open market by the project company.
Turkey and Japan started nuclear plant talks in November 2010 after a failure with South Korea's state nuclear company KEPCO.