Turkey is negotiating with the United States to construct large-scale nuclear power plants and small modular reactors (SMRs), a senior official from the Turkish Energy Ministry announced on Tuesday.
“The USA is showing serious interest in Turkey’s goal of expanding its nuclear energy capacity and building new power plants,” Yusuf Ceylan told Reuters at a nuclear power conference.
Ceylan stated that negotiations are ongoing with South Korea and Russia for a second nuclear power plant in the Black Sea region of Sinop, and with China’s SPIC for a third nuclear power plant in northwest Turkey’s Thrace region.
When asked about the projects under discussion, he said, “We are considering both existing power plant sites and new locations for power plants.”
Jeff Flake, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, told Reuters last month that Ankara had “discussed building small modular reactors with us and others.”
The construction of Turkey’s first 4,800 MW nuclear power plant by Russia’s Rosatom is ongoing at Akkuyu in the Mediterranean region. Turkey plans to build three four-reactor nuclear plants and complement them with small modular reactors (SMRs), aiming for a total generation capacity of 20,000 MW to diversify its electricity production mix.
