Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said the US and South Korea may be considered for a second planned NPP. Türkiye’s first NPP in Akkuyu is being built by Russia with the first of four units due to begin operation in 2026.
In 2024, it was generally assumed that Russia would also build the second NPP planned for in Sinop on the Black Sea coast. Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev said at that time that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made a political decision give the Sinop project to Rosatom under the same build-own-operate model used at Akkuyu. Bayraktar had also said in mid-2024 that Rosatom was “well positioned” for the project. Rosatom teams conducted site studies in Sinop.
This changed after Erdogan’s visit to Washington in September during which a memorandum of understanding on civilian nuclear cooperation was signed at the White House. Turkish officials subsequently described this as the start of a new process in bilateral nuclear cooperation.
Speaking to CNN Turk, Bayraktar said Erdogan had also discussed cooperation on both small and large reactors with the leaders of Canada and France, adding that Türkiye intended to cooperate with the US on both. He said a three-way model between Ankara, Washington and Seoul was under consideration, noting that the US and South Korea were working together.
Turkish officials now say that future work at the site will be opened to competition and that the project will not automatically go to Russia. Bayraktar has said on numerous occasions that Türkiye wants low-cost energy production and the direct participation of Turkish companies in nuclear construction. He pointed out that in the Akkuyu project, more than $7bn of the total investment had come from Turkish industry and that similar results were expected in Sinop.
Details of the new US partnership are not yet clear. According to Energy Ministry sources, the US and Korea have both outlined possible financing and reactor designs. Ankara is expected to decide in 2026 whether to proceed with a joint bid or to select a single main contractor. Officials have not ruled out limited Russian technical participation but say the project will be guided by “Türkiye’s maximum benefit.”
The 2010 intergovernmental agreement underpinning the Akkuyu project specifies that Rosatom finances, builds, owns and operates the plant. The Russian stake in project company Akkuyu Nükleer cannot fall below 51% but the other 49% is available for sale. Rosatom has opened talks with potential Turkish and foreign investors but to no avail. US and European sanctions have made potential buyers and lenders wary.
In 2022 the Akkuyu project faced problems when $2bn of a planned $3bn transfer from Russia was blocked by US authorities during processing through Citibank and JP Morgan. Western sanctions have also disrupted supply chains. German industrial giant Siemens, an early supplier of key components, has refused to deliver certain citing export licensing issues and Rosatom has sought Chinese alternatives.
