ISTANBUL, November 25. /TASS/. Turkey is moving towards the goal of complete energy independence and one of the steps in this direction will be the commissioning of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP), which will cover 10% of the country’s electricity needs, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after a government meeting broadcast by TRT Haber TV channel.

"We are taking reliable steps to achieve the goal of making Turkey completely energy independent <...>. With the construction of the Akkuyu NPP, we are implementing our 70-year-old dream of switching to nuclear energy. Once it is fully operational, we hope it will provide 10% of Turkey's electricity needs," Erdogan said.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said earlier that the first unit of the Akkuyu NPP would be commissioned in 2025. According to him, the plant's operation will offset Turkey's import of 7 bln cubic meters of natural gas per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 35 mln tons.

Akkuyu is the first nuclear power plant in Turkey to be built by the Russian state corporation Rosatom. The project consists of four units with Russian-designed VVER III+ generation reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 MW. According to the terms of the intergovernmental agreement, the first unit of the NPP must be commissioned within 7 years after obtaining all permits. All four units of the station are planned to be commissioned in 2028.