Berlin upsets Kremlin plan to deliver Turkey’s first nuclear plant by blocking parts supply

Berlin and Germany’s Siemens Energy appear to have thrown a spanner in the works of Russia’s plans to complete the construction of Turkey’s already long-delayed first nuclear power plant by withholding key parts.

Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has moved to strike agreements with Chinese suppliers for equivalent parts, but the Siemens Energy non-deliveries of components will delay the launching of the first reactor at Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast, by a few months, Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar was reported as saying by Turkey’s state-run news service Anadolu Agency on September 11.

The situation is increasingly embarrassing for big revenue earner Rosatom as it seeks to hugely expand its nuclear work abroad on the basis that it is more than capable of constructing nuclear plants whatever the situation with Ukraine-war related sanctions imposed on the Kremlin by the West. The delays are also an awkward matter for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who wanted the first reactor of the 4,800-MW Akkuyu plant to be launched to coincide with the 2023 centennial of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

Siemens Energy has provided no reason for withholding the parts, according to Bayraktar, who added that Turkey understood that the decision not to make the deliveries could be related to sanctions imposed on Moscow.

A Siemens Energy spokesperson told Reuters that some parts were not delivered to the nuclear project due to German export regulations, saying: “Some parts were delivered a long time ago, but [deliveries have] not [been made] for a good year now, due to export/customs licences that have not yet been issued. We must of course comply with the export regulations.”

Turkish energy officials have said that they expect the first Akkuyu reactor to go operational in 2025, with the other three to come online by the end of 2028. Construction on Akkuyu began in 2013. In terms of cost, Turkey could be on the hook for $35bn or more.

Erdogan in July referred to how Germany was not permitting the export of some parts required for Akkuyu, with the components stuck at German customs.

"This has seriously bothered us. I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of that in our bilateral meeting," Erdogan told reporters at the time, while on his flight back from a Nato Summit in Washington.

In April 2023, a couple of weeks ahead of Turkey’s presidential elections, Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin celebrated, via video link, an Akkuyu “inauguration” ceremony—subsequently there were multiple media reports, including in international press, saying that the NPP had been launched, whereas in reality, the only development was the arrival of a first shipment of nuclear fuel at the construction site.

Russia and Turkey signed the agreement for the NPP, designed to supply around 10% of Turkey’s electricity, in 2010. First concrete was poured for unit 1 in April 2018, for unit 2 in June 2020, for unit 3 in March 2021 and for unit 4 in July 2022.

Critics of the Akkuyu project have warned the NPP is being built in an earthquake zone.

Rosatom is constructing the reactors in line with a build-own-operate model that is the first in the world in an NPP deal. Some 93% of project financing is coming from a Rosatom unit. Turkey has been calculated to have an overall payment obligation of $35bn for the plant, making it the largest single project payment obligation in Turkish history.