ANKARA, February 24. /TASS/. Russia and Turkey have serious groundwork for new joint projects in the area of nuclear energy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference after negotiations with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.
"There is also serious groundwork for new beginnings in the area of nuclear energy. Speaking about energy, issues of exploitation and ensuring safety of TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines were mentioned, this being necessary amid numerous provocations by the Kiev regime, which is attempting to undermine normal operation of energy facilities, including pipelines, using terrorist attacks," Lavrov said.
The parties also discussed joint work on construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) in detail, he added.
TASS reported earlier that Russia boosted export of gas to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline to 1.56 bln cubic meters, a record level since its launch in 2020, according to the agency’s calculations based on figures provided by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).
The Akkuyu NPP is the first nuclear power plant being built in Turkey. The power plant will include four Russian-designed VVER generation 3+ reactors. Each reactor’s power output will be 1,200 MWt. Under the terms of the intergovernmental agreement, the first power unit of the NPP is to be commissioned in seven years after all permits have been received. Taking into account the receipt of the license for the construction of the first power unit in 2018, this deadline falls on 2025.