Agencies
The opening of Turkey’s first nuclear plant has been delayed after Germany’s Siemens Energy withheld key parts, prompting Russia’s Rosatom to buy them in China, a top Turkish official said Wednesday.
Siemens’s non-delivery could delay launching the Akkuyu power plant’s first reactor by a few months, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Anadolu Agency (AA), pointing to the political attitude toward the issue, highlighting it was brought up in the official communication earlier.
Noting that the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power reactor has been completed by more than 90%, Bayraktar said: “There are difficulties we face due to the nature of nuclear. Unfortunately, there are also difficulties arising from external sources.”
Bayraktar said that Siemens has key equipment related to the nuclear power plant and the German company delays the delivery of it.
“The equipment is used at the construction site, which provides the transmission of electricity. Unfortunately, it has the effect of slowing down construction,” he added.
“There is a decision taken with such a political attitude on an issue that has no legal basis and is not subject to any international sanctions,” he said, adding: “The issue was raised at the highest level.” Noting that the company should definitely “pay a price,” Bayraktar said: “Especially a company that has such a strong presence in the Turkish market.”
“So, if the aim here is to impose sanctions on Russia, Turkey is also seriously affected by this,” he added.Nuclear energy plays an important role in reaching Turkey’s 2053 net zero emission target.
To this end, the country is planning to build nuclear power plants in two other locations after the first plant at Akkuyu, which is under construction in the Mediterranean province of Mersin.
An intergovernmental agreement was signed between Russia and Turkey in May 2010 for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) which will consist of four VVER-1200 power units with a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts (MW). Construction began in 2013 and picked up speed in 2018.
Last year, nuclear fuel was loaded into the first power unit. The plant is ultimately expected to produce around 10% of local electricity production.
Though NATO member Turkey had initially planned to start up Akkuyu’s first reactor in 2023, delays have pushed that back to next year, with the remaining reactors to come online by the end of 2028.
Siemens Energy gave no official reason for withholding the parts, Bayraktar said. It said Turkey understands that it could be related to sanctions on Moscow. Germany’s sanctions and trade policies appear to be incongruous, he said.
Bayraktar said that Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company, has already struck deals with Chinese companies to produce equivalent parts, though he provided no company names.
“There are alternatives. Rosatom already ordered alternative parts from Chinese (firms), and they will come from China,” Bayraktar said.
Turkey could consider fines against Siemens Energy over the delay, even though it has worked with the German company for years, he said.
“This attitude will make us question their position in future projects,” he added.
In July, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Germany was not allowing the export of some parts required for the Akkuyu plant, making them wait at the customs.
“This has seriously bothered us. I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of that in our bilateral meeting,” Erdoğan told reporters at the time, on his flight back from a NATO summit in Washington.
Furthermore, Bayraktar expressed Turkey is interested in offshore gas fields in Egypt to supply hydrocarbons via Turkish floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) vessels.
He pointed to normalized relations between Turkey and Egypt and recalled that the two countries recently signed deals on energy.
Last week, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi arrived in Turkey on a landmark visit seen as the next chapter in enhancing ties between Cairo and Ankara, and the two countries have signed multiple deals on cooperation in different fields from transportation to energy.
Bayraktar said that Turkey and Egypt can cooperate on oil and natural gas and are working on projects.
He also invited countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar to invest in renewable energy projects in the country.
“We will put forward more concrete projects related to these countries,” he added.
