The Turkish government must ratify three urgent legislative regulations for the country's first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu, in the southern province of Mersin, Turkey's acting Energy and Natural Resources Minister Ali Riza Alaboyun said Tuesday.
The regulations cover nature conservation namely olive groves in the region as well as coastal law on governing the handling of nuclear materials and guarantees for the purchase of energy from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority's (EMRA) as well as the licensing for sales contracts on energy from the plant.
'Russia wants to make progress on the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project,' Alaboyun told Anadolu Agency in an interview, adding that Russia already provided 3 billion dollars for the construction of the plant.
Russia is waiting for the formation of a new Turkish government to pass through the relevant regulations to progress the project.
Turkey's first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu will be built in the southern province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast by the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom at a cost of $22 billion. It will have a life cycle of 60 years to produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours per year.
In addition to the Akkuyu plant, Russia also has several projects pending, including the Turkish Stream natural gas project which has not seen any positive development since it was agreed in December 2014.
The Turkish Stream natural gas project, which involves the construction of a pipeline consisting of two parallel lines from Russia to Turkey via the Black Sea, is a replacement to the former cancelled South Stream project.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin discussed energy relations between Turkey and Russia, during the bilateral meeting at the recent G20 summit in Antalya.
Alaboyun also underlined the issue of a third country's involvement in the Turkish Stream project, and emphasized that Russia should make a deal with countries like Greece in order to move forward with the project.
Reporting by Nuran Erkul from Paris
Writing by Ugur Ertas
Anadolu Agency
ugur.ertas@aa.com.tr