Turkey's first nuclear plant delayed, 'not ready before 2022'

Turkey?s first nuclear power plant is unlikely to be ready before 2022, energy officials said on March 23 of the $20-billion project that has been beset by regulatory hurdles and complicated by Russia?s financial woes.

Dependent on imports for almost all of its energy, Turkey has embarked on an ambitious nuclear program, commissioning Russia?s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) in 2013 to build four 1,200 megawatt (MW) reactors.

With energy import costs at about $50 billion annually and demand forecast as the fastest growing in Europe, Ankara wants at least 5 percent of its electricity generation to come from nuclear energy in under a decade, cutting dependency on natural gas largely bought from Russia.

Rosatom initially pledged to have the first of the four reactors in the southern Turkish town of Akkuyu ready by 2019.

A senior Turkish energy official said the project would not be online before at least 2022, given that ground-breaking has yet to happen. ?The first reactor can be online at least seven years after the ground-breaking so the 2019-2020 date is impossible,? the official said.

?This is a key project for Turkey. The schedule needs to be sped up,? Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z told Reuters.

Part of the delay has been environmental approval after heightened concern about nuclear power following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled Japan?s Fukushima plant.

Akkuyu NGS, the project company set up by Rosatom, had to wait for almost a year to obtain environmental approval from Turkish authorities. Consent was given in December, coinciding with Russian President Vladimir Putin?s visit to Turkey.

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