'Path to computing power lies in nuclear energy': Head of T3 Foundation

ISTANBUL

The head of the Türkiye Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) said Thursday that “if we are to have computing power, the path to this lies through nuclear energy,” emphasizing the importance of energy independence in the new era.

Speaking at the Take Off Istanbul Startup Summit, Selcuk Bayraktar stressed that when people talk about the number of operations performed per second in artificial intelligence (AI), the question is: "How much energy do you have?"

"We are organizing a competition at (Türkiye's major tech event) TEKNOFEST. We received an overwhelming number of applications to the latest competition to design a reactor. Our goal is to create the human resources that will develop this technology," he said.

The two-day summit, which began on Wednesday, with Anadolu as its global communications partner, was held at the Istanbul Expo Center under the leadership of the T3 Foundation, the Industry and Technology Ministry and the Investment and Finance Office.

Satellite studies

Touching on the country's fully homegrown orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) designed by Turkish firm Fergani Space Technologies, Bayraktar, who is also its CEO, said there is a 130-staff engineer team at the firm to work currently.

"We are working to build a global positioning system. We have launched our latest orbital transfer vehicle. Orbital transfer vehicles move you from one orbit to a higher orbit," he said.

"Satellites in low orbit have become quite popular with the Starlink Project. The Near Earth Orbit Internet Project will leave its mark on the future. There is currently a race in this field around the world," he added.

In addition, global positioning systems are critical for Türkiye's independence because you can jam or spoof them, said Bayraktar.

He said the name of Türkiye's global positioning system will be Ulug Bey.

Bayraktar said they launched experimental satellites within this scope.

"Türkiye now has a space launch station. Normally, it needs to be located on the ocean coast. Türkiye has an area of 30 kilometers by 30 kilometers in Somalia,” he said.

"When you have a coastline, you can deploy launch vehicles, meaning you have a space port. There are 12 such locations in the world.”

“Construction in Somalia has begun. Türkiye's missile producer Roketsan will also use it, hopefully,” he added.