Nobel laureate Prof. Aziz Sancar and UNESCO-awarded scientist Prof. Bilge Demirköz are starring in a public service ad for Turkey's first nuclear power plant in the Akkuyu region of southern Mersin province.
Scientist Demirköz won the UNESCO International Rising Talent Award for her study on space radiation in 2017, while biochemist Sancar was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on how cells repaired damaged DNA in 2015.
The two Turkish scientists appeared in the short Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant video, which was shot in a total of four days in several different locations after a production period of one and a half months.
Nobel laureate, UNESCO award-winning Turkish professors Aziz Sancar and Bilge Demirköz star in Akkuyu nuclear plant ad https://t.co/ObvGvPNoUt pic.twitter.com/qGB7IEK74c
— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) April 2, 2018
The public service ad, prepared by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, aims to explain the objectives of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and its importance to Turkey.
After circulating on TV channels and social media, the video soon received a great amount of positive feedback.
Contracted to Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, with Turkish partners holding a 49 percent stake in the project, the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant will begin Tuesday with a groundbreaking ceremony with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in attendance.
With an estimated cost of $20 billion, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant has the highest investment a single project has ever received in Turkey. The plant will consist of four reactors with a capacity of 4,800 megawatt (MW) of installed power with each reactor having a 1,200-MW capacity.
Scheduled to be complete by 2023, marking the centennial of the Republic of Turkey, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant will produce approximately 35 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power annually.
