ISTANBUL, October 10. /TASS/. Russia and Turkey are considering the possibility of plugging Turkish investors into the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project the Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom has been implementing in Turkey.

"Firstly, we’ve held a discussion over the possibility of declaring Akkuyu as strategic in compliance with Turkish legislation. Secondly, we considered if the list of participants in the project may be expended and Turkish companies invited at the investor level, up to 49% in compliance with the inter-government agreement," Rosatom chief Aleksey Likhachev told TASS.

At present, Russian companies under Rosatom’s control have a 100%-stake in Akkuyu. Under the inter-government agreement, investors from Turkey and other countries may have a combined 49% stake in the project.

"We do have such an opportunity. The way we see it, it will be the correct decision to minimize risks and accelerate the project," Likhachev said.

The two parties also discussed some practical aspects, including the timetable of the project’s implementation.

"We agreed on tighter interaction between Rosatom and Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister and the regulators concerned," Likhachev said, adding that Turkey suggested 2023 be seen as the deadline for the first reactor to go on stream.

"Consequently, this is the project’s main landmark," he said.

Rosatom is building the Akkuyu NPP (a cluster of four 1.2 megawatt reactors) near the port of Mersin.

In June 2016, Rosatom said that concrete would begin to be poured in the NPP’s basement in 2018, when the construction license has been obtained. The first reactor is to go operational by 2023.