Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10
Trend:
Russia and Turkey are considering the possibility of plugging Turkish investors into the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) project, which is being implemented by Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom in Turkey, TASS reports citing Rosatom’s CEO Alexey Likhachev.
"Firstly, we’ve held a discussion over the possibility of declaring Akkuyu as strategic in compliance with Turkish legislation. Secondly, we considered if the list of participants in the project may be expended and Turkish companies invited at the investor level, up to 49 percent in compliance with the intergovernmental agreement," said Likhachev.
Currently, Russian companies under Rosatom’s control have a 100 percent-stake in Akkuyu, he noted adding that under the intergovernmental agreement, investors from Turkey and other countries may have a combined 49 percent-stake in the project.
The two parties also discussed some practical aspects, including the schedule of the project’s implementation.
"We agreed on closer interaction between Rosatom and Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister and the regulators concerned," Likhachev said, adding that Turkey suggested 2023 be seen as the deadline for the first reactor to go on stream.
Rosatom is building the Akkuyu NPP (a cluster of four 1.2 megawatt reactors) near the port of Mersin.