Russian state-run nuclear power giant Rosatom has announced that it has awarded TSM Enerji the contract to undertake the remaining construction work at the nuclear power plant it is building southern Turkey, Reuters reported on Saturday.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the $20 billion nuclear plant with TSM was signed by Rosatom subsidiary Akkuyu Nukleer after its agreement with Turkish firm IC Ictas was terminated, according to Reuters.
Located in Turkey’s Mediterranean coastal town of Mersin, Turkey’s first nuclear power plant Akkuyu is a joint Russian-Turkish project with Russian energy company Rosatom as the majority stakeholder. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin kicked off the construction of the plant in 2019 amid concerns about the potentially destructive ecological consequences of the plant.
TSM is owned by three Russia-based companies, according to the Turkish trade registry, Reuters said.
“All works under current subcontracts will be transferred to TSM … Similar new contracts will be signed between TSM and subcontractors,” it cited Akkuyu Nukleer as saying in a statement, stopping short of saying why the IC Ictas agreement had been terminated.
Bloomberg on Friday reported that Rosatom was transferring money to Akkuyu Nuclear JSC in a bid to alleviate concerns that war sanctions could stall the project.
Rosatom sent around $5 billion to Akkuyu Nuclear JSC last week and two other similar dollar transfers are scheduled for this week and next, Turkish officials with knowledge on the matter told Bloomberg.
The officials suggested the move was a goodwill gesture by Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank Turkey for the Ukraine grain deal brokered by Ankara along with the U.N. earlier this month.
Akkuyu aims to provide Turkey with 10 percent of its energy needs when all of its four 1,200-megawatt reactors come on line.
Ahval