Turkiye Plans to Build Three N-Plants by 2035

Moving towards clean energy transition goals by 2053, Turkiye has announced that it will set up three nuclear power plants by 2035, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

While the 4.8 GW Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant will commence power generation of 1.2 GW from the first reactor in 2025, which will meet 2.5% of the country’s consumption, a final decision will be made regarding the other two nuclear power plants next year, the Minister told reporters.

Once fully operational, the Akkuyu plant, will provide 10% of the country’s power consumption.

“The electricity generated from Akkuyu will reduce import of 7 to 7.5 billion cu. m. of natural gas, which is equivalent to $3 billion [n savings from gas imports,” the minister noted.

Turkiye needs to build two more large nuclear power plants in the Black Sea province of Sinop and Igneada the Thrace region, he said and added that the country aims to have 7.2 GW of nuclear power by 2035.

“In 2025, we will have decided about with which country, with which technology we will proceed with the construction of those two nuclear power plants,” he explained.

Russians, who are currently building the Akkuyu facility in the southern province of Mersin, are also interested in the construction of the planned Sinop nuclear power plant. Turkiye is also receiving offers from other countries on its energy projects, Bayraktar said.

Those offers are related to projects in Somalia, natural gas exploration in the Black Sea and offshore activities in Bulgaria, he said without providing other details.

Natural gas production capacity at the Sakarya field in the Black Sea has risen from 6.7 million cu. m. to 7 million cu. m. and the output will exceed 9 million cu. m. in the first quarter of next year. As part of the activities in the Black Sea, 40 new wells will be drilled, Bayraktar said.

It may be recalled that Turkiye has added more than 6 GW to its solar and wind power capacity in 2024, exceeding the initial target of 5,000 MW.

“If we build 1 GW of solar, we will reduce $350 million of natural gas imports. This year’s 6 GW will save about 2.1 billion cu. m. of natural gas, which will enable the nation to save around $800 million to $ 1 billion worth of imports,” Bayraktar said.

Two Other N-Plants

According to World Nuclear Association, preparatory work has been under way since 2008 for the second nuclear plant at Sinop on the Black Sea coast along with a $1.77 billion nuclear technology centre.

There are plans to build further nuclear capacity at another site in the Thrace region of Turkey and the government has identified Igneada in Kirklareli province on the Black Sea, 12 km from the Bulgarian border.

Akcakoca between it and Sinop was also considered. Ankara – with low seismic risk – and Tekirdag on the northwest coast of the Sea of Marmara had also been mentioned as possible sites.