Turkey granted today permission to the project management company of the nuclear plant under construction in ‘Akougiou for its operation first power plant of the station.

The company said in a statement that it had submitted the first set of documents to the Turkish nuclear regulatory authority on March 17 and the second on August 24 to obtain an operating license.

The granting of the license is followed by the start-up, regulation and production procedures, which are the final phases of the construction of the nuclear power plant for its safe operation.

“The decision of the Turkish Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NDK) to grant a license for the operation of the first unit of the Akuyu nuclear power plant confirms that we have fulfilled all the requirements of Turkish law and international standards for the construction of nuclear plants and are ready to proceed Anastasia Zoteeva, general director of the project company, Akkuyu Nuclear Company, said in a statement by the Russian state atomic energy agency Rosatom published on Telegram.

This permission, as he said, is the beginning of “a new, important and responsible stage in the course of the project”, Zoteeva stated. The next stage concerns obtaining an operational license for the first energy production unit. This means that nuclear fuel can be loaded into the reactor and testing can begin before production begins.

The Akkuyu nuclear power plant, located in the province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, will have an electricity generation capacity of 35 billion kilowatt hours after the construction of all four units. According to the intergovernmental agreement between Turkey and Russia, the first unit is expected to start producing electricity in 2025.