The head of Rosatom on Monday said he plans to visit the construction site of Türkiye’s first atomic power plant that Russia's state nuclear energy company is building on the southern Mediterranean coastline after devastating earthquakes struck the country’s southeastern region.
The plant’s site in Akkuyu, located some 338 kilometers (210 miles) to the west of the epicenter of the Feb. 6 quakes, is being designed to endure powerful tremors and officials have said it did not sustain any damage nor experience powerful ground shaking from the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude quakes and aftershocks.
Alexei Likhachev, head of Rosatom, said on Monday that the company hoped the quakes would not affect the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
"We very much hope that they will not. At least, we do not feel at this point any serious changes in the policy of the Turkish leadership," Likhachev was cited by the Interfax news agency as telling reporters.
He noted that some of the equipment being used during the construction of the nuclear power plant was sent to help clear the aftermath of the earthquakes, he said.
"This hardware is gradually returning, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that it does not affect the pace of work," he said. "I plan to go there shortly to meet with the leadership of Türkiye and to visit the facility's construction site," Likhachev noted
"Tremors reached the Akkuyu construction site but did not cause even any disruption to the pace of work, let alone damage," he said.
Rosatom said the power station is designed to "withstand extreme external influences" from a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. In nuclear power plant construction, plants are designed to survive shaking that is more extreme than what’s been previously recorded in the area they’re sited.
The plant, whose first of four reactors is scheduled to go online in the first half of this year, will have a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts of electricity, providing about 10% of Türkiye’s electricity needs.
The remaining three reactors are due to start operation by the end of 2026 at a rate of one per year.
According to government figures, if the power plant started operating today, it could singlehandedly provide enough electricity for a city of about 15 million people, such as Istanbul, Rosatom added.
It’s estimated to cost $20 billion. Rosatom has a 99.2% stake in the project and is contracted to build, maintain, operate and decommission the plant.