Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız and Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko laid the foundation stone for the construction of the plant in a ceremony to indicate the start of the $22 billion project. The project is expected to complete in 2020 and will have four power units with a capacity of 1200 MW each.

The Russian-designed Akkuyu plant in Mersin, on the Mediterranean coast, is the first of four 1,200 MWe Gidropress-designed AES-2006 VVER pressurized water reactors that the country plans to build.

Since 1973, several plans to build nuclear power plants were abandoned due to economic and financial issues. The current plant is being financed by Russia according to a build-own-operate model, under an intergovernmental agreement signed by Turkey and Russia in 2010.

Plans for nuclear power are a key aspect of the country's aim for economic growth and cutting back on its reliance on Russian and Iranian gas for electricity.

Also in mid-April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved parliament's ratification of an intergovernmental agreement with Japan to build the country's second nuclear power station, a 4,800 MWe complex, at Sinop on Turkey's Black Sea coast. Ownership of the plant will be split between a consortium of Japan's Mitsubishi and Itochu, and France's Areva and GDF Suez, with 65%, and Turkey's state-run power producer EUAS, with 35%. Construction of the plant is expected to start in 2017, once an environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been approved.

The news was reported in World Nuclear News.