Construction licence issued for Akkuyu 4

29 October 2021

Construction of Turkey's fourth nuclear power reactor will start at the beginning of 2022, after the project was granted a construction licence by the country's Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Akkuyu will become the largest nuclear construction site in the world, Rosatom said.

Akkuyu 1 rises at the construction site (Image: Akkuyu Nuclear)

"At the beginning of next year, we will start building the foundation slab of the nuclear island buildings,” said Anastasia Zoteeva, director general of Akkuyu Nuclear, the project company executing the four-reactor power plant.

Preparatory work, including engineering surveys and excavation of over 650 square metres, have already been carried out on the basis of a limited construction permit issued in June. "By the end of this year," Rosatom said, "the construction of the concrete base of the foundation slabs of the reactor and turbine buildings is expected to start. The foundation slabs will then be reinforced." The plant will then be ready for the official start of construction, which is the pouring of first safety-related concrete, the foundation slab.

Akkuyu is a new nuclear power plant on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. It has three VVER-1200 reactors designed by Rosatom subsidiary Gidropress already under construction, as well as the fourth about to begin. The first unit is scheduled to generate power in 2023, subject to further approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority.

Pictures from last week show Akkuyu 1 rising to a height of 36 metres with the placement of its fourth inner containment ring. This is the last cylindrical segment. It will support the reactor's polar crane and will be finally capped with a dome after all major components such as the reactor pressure vessel and steam generators are installed inside.

With the construction of unit 4, Akkuyu will become the largest nuclear construction site in the world, Rosatom said, with four large reactors under construction at the same time. "Simultaneous construction of four power units of the nuclear power plant will require a high concentration of resources, but we are fully prepared for this", Sergei Butckikh, the first deputy CEO of Akkuyu Nuclear, said in August. Some 12,000 people currently work at the site, which features more than 70 cranes.

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Nuclear to power remote gold mine

Nuclear power is the required energy source for development of the Russian gold deposit at Kyuchus, the country's minister of natural resources and the environment, Alexander Kozlov made clear as the deposit's development rights were auctioned. The small reactor planned for Ust-Kuyga will supply the mine.

How a power plant based on RITM-200 technology could appear (Image: Rusatom Overseas)

"It is important that for the first time, one of the special conditions of the auction spelled out the use of at least 35 MWe of nuclear electricity, to be supplied by a small nuclear power plant in Yakutia," said Kozlov.

The small nuclear power plant in question is planned for construction at Ust-Kuyga. It will produce about 55 MWe from a single RITM-200N reactor. The regional government has agreed to take up to 50 MWe of the plant's production, with 35 MWe of this apparently being sold on to the mining operation. A licence for construction is expected to be issued in 2024.

There is virtually no infrastructure in the area of Kyuchus. The ministry said nuclear power "will make it possible not only to develop the field, but also to provide energy to the nearby territories. According to the auction conditions, no later than 30 June 2028, the winner of the auction must start using nuclear power, which must be supplied by the small nuclear power plant in the Yakutia region. In addition, the winner is obliged to ensure the level of production of at least 10 tons of gold per year from the date of reaching the design capacity."

A company called Beloye Zoloto won the auction, paying RUB7.7 billion (USD107.7 million) as a one-time payment for subsurface resources at Kyuchus, which are estimated to be as much as 250 tons of gold. Among the unsuccessful bidders were uranium miners Atomredmetzoloto and the Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Combine.

Separately, the development of another large mineral deposit in the Russian Arctic is also being supported by small nuclear reactors. Baimskaya is a copper and gold project in the Chukotka region which will be powered by two floating power plants at Cape Nagloynyn, each with two RITM-200M units, from 2027.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News