Turkey's prime minister said on Wednesday that energy had an important place in his meeting with the Russian leader, Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev met in the Russian capital of Moscow, and mainly discussed energy issues, particularly the nuclear power plant to be built in Akkuyu town of Turkey's southern province of Mersin.
"Every investment may have a negative result, however you cannot give up an investment just because it may have a negative result," Erdogan told a joint press conference with Medvedev.
Erdogan's remarks came after a nuclear disaster in Japan, caused by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Premier Erdogan said there were tube tunnels Turkey was constructing beneath the sea and those investments were quake-resistant and quake-resistance was important when preparing projects.
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.
Erdogan said two countries were also working on the South Stream Natural Gas Pipeline Project and Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Project, and they were willing to complete the projects.
A Turkish-Russian partnership, opened in the southern Turkish town of Iskenderun, ensured employment for 1,500 people, he also said.