Turkey's Akkuyu Nuclear Company announced on December 12 that it had received permission from authorities to operate the first power unit of the country's first nuclear power plant, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The company said that it had submitted the first batch of documents to the Turkish Nuclear Regulatory Authority on March 17 and the second batch on August 24 for commissioning authorization.

The permission followed start-up, adjustment and operation processes, which were the final phases for the safe operation of nuclear power plant construction, according to a statement from the company.

"In the next stage, the company will continue to apply for the operation license of the No. 1 power unit, which will allow the company to begin loading nuclear fuel into the reactor and carry out pre-launch control operations with approval," the director of the project Anastasia Zoteeva said.

The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, located in the southern Mersin Province of Turkey, was constructed by Russian state company Rosatom since April 2018, which would operate for 60 years, with a possible extension of 20 years.  

Its power generation capacity will reach 48 GW after all four reactor units are completed. And the plant is predicted to produce 35 TWh of power annually to meet approximately 10% of domestic electricity needs, saving $1.5 billion in gas imports per year.

The first unit is expected to start power generation in 2025 under the intergovernmental agreement between Turkey and Russia, according to Rosatom.

(Writing by yan.sun  Editing by Harry Huo)
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