ISTANBUL, December 16. /TASS/. Rosatom has addressed the equipment problems it faced in building Turkey's first nuclear power plant (NPP), the Akkuyu NPP, in connection with Siemens' failure to deliver on previous agreements, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian state corporation Alexey Likhachev said.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said earlier that the equipment ordered from German supplier Siemens prior to 2020, meaning before the special military operation and subsequent sanctions against Moscow, has never been delivered to the NPP facility.

"The [NPP] project faced many difficulties, starting from the pandemic and continuing with the collapse of global logistics. Moreover, it faced sanctions. In particular, Germany’s Siemens refused to supply the equipment that had been produced," the chief executive told the Sabah newspaper, adding that to solve the problem, Rosatom had to rework its supply chain. "We leveraged our competitive advantage because no other organization has the experience we do in integrating elements of international projects. The greatest strength of the Akkuyu project is that it is international. Many Turkish companies, successful and with top shelf expertise, are involved here," he noted.

The turbine that the Siemens company was supposed to deliver, was produced in Europe, Likhachev said. "It is of French origin, though many Russian-made components were used in its production," he added.

"As soon as we understood that we had a problem with Siemens we turned to our Chinese friends, who extended a helping hand to us. Chinese specialists arrived and set up the equipment. Now we are patching up the hole that our German suppliers left us," Rosatom’s head said.

NPP’s commissioning planned in 2028

Four power units are currently under construction at the Akkuyu NPP facility, Likhachev said. "Our first and biggest task is to start electricity generation at the first unit. We are making good progress here, and are close to commissioning the first unit. We hit an important milestone by rotating the turbine shaft, meaning it is ready for operation," he said. The main equipment has also been installed at the second unit of the NPP, with work to put in security systems already underway, the chief executive added. "This year we will also install the reactor vessel at the third unit," he stressed.

Construction of the nuclear power plant is expected to finish in 2028, as per agreements in place, Likhachev noted.

Akkuyu NPP will be Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, built by Russia’s Rosatom state corporation. The Akkuyu NPP project includes four power units equipped with Generation 3+ VVER reactors of the Russian design. The capacity of each power unit is planned at 1,200 MW.