The physical and power start-up of the first unit of the Akkuyu NPP is planned for 2026, according to Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev. “We are aiming for next year,” Likhachev told TASS. Earlier, the head of the Turkish Ministry of Energy, Alparslan Bayraktar, had also announced plans to launch Akkuyu 1 in 2026.
Likhachev noted that the construction of the Akkuyu NPP was subject to the most severe restrictions and sanctions against Russia. “This is both the destruction of the payment system and the refusal of suppliers who have already been paid and have manufactured equipment from delivering it to the station. I would like to emphasise once again, that this specifically relates to Siemens.
Therefore, on the fly, we replaced these imports with Russian solutions and solutions from friendly countries. Taking into account that the frozen money, $2bn, was never returned to us, we were also forced to look for additional sources of financing. We had to look for a mechanism for bringing this money directly to the site, to Turkish suppliers, because a huge number of Turkish companies and people are involved in this construction.” Likhachev emphasised that “no other Rosatom construction project has experienced such a sanctioned meat grinder”. However, he gave assurances that Rosatom is doing everything to ensure that the launch takes place in 2026.
Akkuyu NPP will eventually host four Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactors. The pouring of first concrete for unit 1 took place in April 2018, for unit 2 in June 2020, for unit 3 in March 2021, and for unit 4 in July 2022. Rosatom is constructing the reactors according to a build-own-operate model.
