The politically motivated refusal of the German concern Siemens to supply equipment for the Akkuyu NPP delayed the project implementation and commissioning of Turkey's first nuclear power plant by one and a half years. This assessment was given by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Alparslan Bayraktar, when the issue of choosing an alternative supplier was directly on the agenda.
The General Director of Rosatom State Corporation, Alexey Likhachev, stated that the German company Siemens will have to answer in court for refusing to supply paid equipment to the first unit of the Akkuyu NPP. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated that the German company Siemens did not fulfill its obligations. Negotiations with the company were unsuccessful, so it was decided to purchase an alternative from other countries.
At the NPPES-2025 industry forum for nuclear scientists in Istanbul, the head of Akkuyu Nuclear and Rusatom Energy International, Anton Dedusenko, announced that equipment from Chinese partners, ordered after Siemens' departure, will be delivered in the near future.
We expect that the distribution equipment, which we had to actually re-contract in 2024 in China due to difficulties with delivery from the previous supplier, will be ready for power output this year.
As a reminder, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant is being built in Turkey with the participation of Russia and according to a Russian project. The plant will include four power units with VVER-1200 generation 3+ reactors. This will be the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, and it will be located on the Mediterranean coast, in the province of Mersin.
For the first time in the global nuclear industry, the Russian-Turkish project is being implemented according to the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) model. According to this scheme, one party (the investor-contractor) designs, builds, and operates the nuclear power plant at its own expense, becoming its owner. The other party (in this case, the Republic of Turkey) is responsible for obtaining the necessary permits and undertakes to purchase a certain portion of the electricity produced at a fixed price. The owner sells the remaining part of the nuclear generation on the open market.
The project, which is important for both Turkey and Russia, has come under sanctions pressure from the European Union. Because of this, Siemens decided to withdraw from it at the final stage. Although some of the equipment previously supplied from Germany is used in Russian projects abroad, it can be assumed that it is also present at the Akkuyu NPP.
Distribution equipment for transmitting power from the nuclear power plant's generators to the power grid will be purchased in China. They have accumulated significant experience there and can offer more favorable terms than competitors.
According to Dedusenko, electricity from the Akkuyu NPP will be transmitted via a power transmission line over a thousand kilometers long to six transformer substations. A line from Akkuyu to Mersin has already been built. An agreement has been signed with TEİAŞ (the company responsible for electricity transmission in Turkey) to connect the NPP to the country's power system. High-voltage lines are currently being erected to transmit power from the nuclear power plant.
As it became known earlier, the laboratories of the Akkuyu NPP are ready to work according to international standards. Forty employees of the nuclear power plant's five laboratories have been trained. This is preparation for certification according to ISO 17025. This step is important for full accreditation, which will confirm the high quality and safety of the station's operation.
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