Kazakhstani delegation visits Akkuyu NPP site

The delegation of Kazakhstan visited the construction site of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in the Gulnar district of Mersin province in southern Turkey, El.kz reports with reference to Kazinform news agency.

The visit was organized by a subsidiary of Rosatom. The delegation included 22 representatives of Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh delegation was informed about the safety rules at the facility, after which they visited the construction site.

A meeting was held with the General Director of Akkuyu Nükleer AŞ Anastasia Zoteeva and other responsible persons.

Zoteeva expressed gratitude for Kazakh delegation and spoke about the importance of the Akkuyu NPP for Turkey.

"There was an opportunity to see an atmosphere of cooperation and engineering excellence. The Akkuyu NPP is the world's first and only nuclear power plant project implemented under the "build-manage-pass" scheme," she said.

The intergovernmental agreement between Turkey and Russia on cooperation in the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant at the Akkuyu site in Mersin Province was signed on May 12, 2010. The project of the first Turkish nuclear power plant includes four power units with VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 4800 megawatts. The first unit of the nuclear power plant will be put into operation in 2023, by the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Turkey.

The nuclear power plant will generate electricity for 60 years. It is planned that the nuclear power plant will provide 10 percent of Turkey's electricity needs.

783 people are involved in the implementation of the Akkuyu NPP construction project. At the peak of construction, it will involve about nine thousand people. After the commissioning of the nuclear power plant, 3.5 thousand people will work on it.

The nuclear power plant will generate electricity 24 hours a day and seven days a week.