Türkiye plans to commission its first small modular reactor (SMR) in the first half of the 2030s as part of its broader nuclear energy strategy, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Wednesday.
Bayraktar's remarks came a day after Ankara launched a new cooperation with the U.S. to conduct a technical study of small modular reactors and fourth-generation nuclear technologies for potential deployment in Türkiye.
The project, agreed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, will be funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) in collaboration with state-owned Türkiye Nuclear Energy.
The study will assess, from technical, economic, legislative and licensing perspectives, SMR designs from four U.S. companies and five fourth-generation reactor technologies.
The agreement would also cover Central Asia and the Turkic republics, Bayraktar told a meeting with U.S. businesspeople during the Türkiye Investment Conference organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Türkiye-U.S. Business Council (TAIK).
Türkiye has industrial capacity in the nuclear sector and wants to develop capabilities on the technology side as well, he said, adding that Ankara was also exploring nuclear cooperation opportunities with Canada.
Bayraktar said the government was working on regulations that could include incentives and exemptions for companies investing in SMRs.
"Hopefully, we will see the first SMR in Türkiye in the first half of the 2030s," Bayraktar said. "There is a global race in this area. But we have not seen a reactor yet. We want Türkiye to be at the stage where this technology takes off."
Türkiye is months away from the planned launch of the initial reactor of its first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu. The four-reactor plant is being built by Russia's state-owned nuclear company Rosatom in the southern Mersin province.
Akkuyu's four reactors will have a combined installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts (MW). Once all units are operational, it is expected to supply about 10% of Türkiye's electricity demand.
Ankara plans to construct two additional plants, one in Sinop on the Black Sea coast and one in the Thrace region.
Türkiye has accelerated talks with Canada on the projects, while also being in contact with China, Russia and South Korea.
Bayraktar said France's state-owned EDF had significant expertise in nuclear energy and that Türkiye planned to sign a cooperation agreement with the company soon.
He stressed that nuclear cooperation should not be limited to investment, saying experience-sharing in areas such as operations and safety was also important.
Bayraktar also said Türkiye expects data centers' electricity demand to reach between 5 and 10 terawatt-hours by around 2035.
Bayraktar said energy infrastructure would be a key component of the Development Road project.
"We want to establish natural gas and oil pipelines as well as an electricity interconnection," he said, adding that billions of dollars in annual revenues from the energy infrastructure could help finance the wider Development Road infrastructure.
He also highlighted transport electrification as critical to reducing Türkiye's dependence on imported energy.
Türkiye will need 13 million electric vehicles and at least 1.3 million charging stations by 2035 to manage rising oil demand, Bayraktar said.
He estimated that the country would need $50 billion of investment in distribution networks and $30 billion in transmission infrastructure by 2035 to support that transition.
Bayraktar said Türkiye viewed mining as an integral part of its broader energy strategy, rather than as a separate sector.
He identified gold as a critical mineral for Türkiye alongside rare earth elements, noting the country's high level of gold imports.
Türkiye is working on rare earth processing and enrichment capabilities, while state-owned Eti Maden is expected to pursue a more aggressive growth strategy in strategic minerals, he said.
"Without mining there is no industry, and without it there is no energy transition," Bayraktar said.
