Rosatom opens talks with Turkish firms on stake in Akkuyu nuclear plant

MOSCOW – Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has begun talks with Turkish companies on joint ownership of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, after the Iran war spurred interest in such assets.

Turkey’s 4.8-gigawatt Akkuyu nuclear power plant project, costing more than $20 billion, is financed by Russia and Rosatom, its sole owner, can bring in a partner for up to 49 percent in order to share the investment.

“We have started substantive discussions with a number of Turkish companies on the parameters of participation in the share capital,” Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev said.

“There is currently strong interest among Turkish companies in entering the share capital of this project,” he added.

Rosatom’s search for a co-investor in Akkuyu has so far been unsuccessful. A Turkish consortium that had agreed to join the project fell apart in 2018 and no new candidates have emerged.

Likhachev said talks on Turkish investors acquiring a stake in Akkuyu have intensified against the backdrop of the Iran war, which has exposed the fragility of the global energy balance.

“The events” in the Arabian Gulf, in the Strait of Hormuz, “once again force countries to return to the need to have powerful, reliable sources of electricity under their ownership and on their own territory,” Likhachev said.

Moscow and Ankara signed an agreement in 2010 to build a nuclear power plant with four Russian VVER-1200 reactors, but the project faced repeated delays and bureaucratic hurdles.

Rosatom began construction of the plant in 2018. The commissioning date has been repeatedly pushed back from the originally planned 2023 and is now expected at the end of 2026.

After Moscow launched military action in Ukraine in 2022, pressure on the project increased. Although Rosatom was not targeted by Western sanctions, risks over payments and other issues remain.

Some $2 billion in payments have been stuck in a JPMorgan bank account, although Ankara has said it is playing a mediating role in efforts to unblock them.

Likhachev said all problems related to Akkuyu have now been resolved.