Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
      A ceremony dedicated to the delivery of the first batch of nuclear fuel to the first NPP in Turkey was held at the construction site on April 27th. This was a historic event that marked the entry of the Republic of Turkey into the community of nations developing nuclear generation technologies on their territory.
     Recep Erdoğan is the President of the Republic of Turkey. He took part in the ceremony and was joined by Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, via videoconferencing. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Fatih Dönmez, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Alexei Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, Anastasia Zoteeva, CEO of JSC Akkuyu Nuclear, and many other official guests attended the ceremony.
    The Akkuyu NPP is the first project in the global nuclear industry being implemented in accord with the Build-Own-Operate model.
     Regarding the supply chain, Turkey is monitoring the example of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is in the process of deploying four Korean-designed APR1400 reactors at the Barakah site. Three of these four units are now online. More than two thousand UAE companies have secured contracts that total more than four billion eight hundred million dollars for a range of products and services to support Bakarah. The percentage of local products is rising. Ducab is a UAE cable manufacturing company which provided electrical cables to the Barakah NPP. It has even exported its products back to the Korean market.
      Targeting its 2053 zero carbon goal, Turkey will continue to increase its nuclear capacity. Negotiations continue for the second Turkish NPP which is planned to be located in the country’s north. The Turkish government is in contact with Russia, South Korean and U.S.-based nuclear vendors with respect to the project. For the third Turkish NPP, conversations with South Korea and China have taken place. The Turkish government is also looking at SMR technologies which could be a game-changing technology for Turkey’s energy market. In addition, Turkey is considering Generation IV reactors based on indigenous thorium resources.
      Turkish companies have sufficient knowledge, ability and experience in manufacturing and construction sectors. NIATR believes that Turkey’s industrialists can take important roles in the equipment supply chain for NPPs not only in Turkey but also in the whole region. Many neighboring countries including Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are either starting or expanding on their nuclear power programs.
     NIATR along with Ankara Chamber of Industry and with Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources support and the Association of Organizations of the Construction Complex of the Nuclear Industry are organizing Nuclear Power Plants V Expo and IX Summit (NPPES) to be held on 21-22 June in Istanbul. It will welcome leading companies in the International nuclear market, industrial associations and government bodies. International nuclear industry players will meet with Turkish industrialists in at the Expo to negotiate opportunities for nuclear energy investments. The summit will include special sessions for Akkuyu NPP’s suppliers and practical business-to-business meetings traditionally attended by hundreds of Turkish people in business. Tender opportunities for construction materials will also be announced at the NPPES for local and global industrialists.
     Akkuyu and other NPP projects should be considered not only power plants to meet electricity needs but also a tool to raise the technological level of Turkish industry in the international arena.