has no nuclear power plants but the first is expected to come online in 2023. In addition to these, the government has announced intentions for three further nuclear power plants with four reactors each, as part of 100 GWe required by 2030.
Regulation and policy
In 2007 a bill concerning construction and operation of nuclear power plants and the sale of their electricity was passed by parliament. It also addresses waste management and decommissioning, providing for a National Radioactive Waste Account and a Decommissioning Account, which generators will pay into progressively. The International Atomic Energy Agency has recommended "enacting a law on nuclear energy which establishes an independent regulatory body and putting a national policy in place that covers a wide range of issues, as well as further developing the required human resources".
In May 2010, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement that a subsidiary of Rosatom would build, own, and operate a power plant at Akkuyu comprising four 1,200 MWe VVER1200 units. Construction of the first reactor has commenced in April 2018. In February 2013, Russian nuclear construction company Atomstroyexport and Turkish construction company Özdoğu signed the site preparation contract for the proposed Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. The contract includes excavation work at the site. The official launch ceremony took place in April 2015, and the first unit is expected to be completed in 2023. It will be the first build–own–operatenuclear power plant.
On 3 May 2013, the then Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzō Abe, signed a deal over US$22 billion for the construction of the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant that would have been carried out by a joint venture consortium of Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and French Areva. Four Atmea reactor would have been used, to enter service from 2023 to 2028. In 2018 the project was abandoned due to construction costs having almost doubled to about $44 billion, largely because of post-Fukushima safety improvements and the fall in the value of the Turkish lira.
Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yıldız has announced that the government is working on the plans of the third nuclear plant, which is projected to be built after 2023 under the management of Turkish engineers. In October 2015 it was announced that İğneada had been selected as the third site. Technology will come from US based firm Westinghouse Electric Company in the form of two AP1000 and two CAP1400.
Opposition
There have been anti-nuclear protests in the past, for example in April 2006, plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Ince peninsula caused a large anti-nuclear demonstration in the Turkish city of Sinop. Greenpeace, who have expressed concerns over earthquakes and the ability of the authorities to protect the public, have opposed these proposals. There are concerns that no site for the waste has yet been selected.
