Türkiye: Rosatom seeks Chinese alternatives after Germany blocks providing nuclear plant component
It doesn’t seem that the completion date of the Turkish nuclear plant will be on time after Germany delayed the arrival of parts of it for reasons that seem unclear to Ankara, which prompted it to turn to China to supply those parts.
According to the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar said Wednesday that the launch of his country’s first nuclear power plant had been delayed because German energy company Siemens had withheld key parts, prompting Russia’s Rosatom, which owns and is building the plant, to turn to China to buy the parts.
Bayraktar revealed that Germany hadn’t provided any satisfactory explanation for the delay that affected the project, although he believed that this was likely due to the sanctions imposed on the Russian company.
Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the delay problem hasn’t been resolved, necessitating the need to look for alternatives to complete the construction of the Akkuyu power plant according to the schedule.
Türkiye initially planned to start operating the first reactor at the plant in 2023, however, the date was postponed to the following year due to delays, with the remaining reactors set to start operating by the end of 2028.
A Siemens Energy spokesman confirmed that some parts weren’t delivered to Türkiye due to German export regulations.
The Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources said, “Rosatom, (Russia’s state nuclear energy company) had already struck deals with Chinese companies to produce equivalent parts,” without naming the Chinese company.
“There are alternatives… Rosatom has already ordered replacement parts from Chinese companies, and they will come from China,” he added.
Bayraktar continued, “Türkiye could consider imposing fines on Siemens for the delay, even though it has been working with the German company for years,” stressing that “this action will make us question their position on future projects”.
Rosatom is building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Türkiye’s Mediterranean province of Mersin under a deal with Ankara dating back to 2010.
The $20 billion, 4,800-megawatt project includes four reactors and would put Türkiye among the few countries with civilian nuclear power plants.
Bayraktar said Siemens hadn’t given any official reason for withholding the parts, and that Türkiye understood it could be linked to sanctions on Moscow.
He added that the sanctions and German trade policies seemed at odds.
Last year saw the loading of nuclear fuel into the site’s first power unit, as the power plant is expected to eventually produce about 10% of Türkiye’s needs for electricity.
Last July, the Turkish president said that Germany had delayed the export of some parts required for the Akkuyu plant, leaving them stuck in customs.
It’s worth noting that the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented of on the issue, as he told reporters at the time on his return from a NATO summit in Washington, last July, “This has upset us greatly… I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of this in our bilateral meeting”.
Erdogan added that all Akkuyu units will enter service successively until 2028, and the station will provide 10% of the country’s electricity needs.
He continued, “We’ve made Türkiye one of the countries that use nuclear energy through the Akkuyu station after the European Commission described this energy as green”.
He added, “The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is the result of our largest joint investment with Russia, and when it enters service at full capacity, it will produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually”.
He added that the plant will contribute to reducing Türkiye’s natural gas imports by $1.5 billion annually, and will have a positive impact on increasing its national income.
