Turkish president inspects Akkuyu nuclear power plant construction

By Enes Kaplan

MERSIN, Türkiye (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday inspected the Akkuyu nuclear power plant that is currently under construction in the country's southern Mersin province.

Erdogan made investigations and received information from authorities during the visit that was closed to the media.

Akkuyu has an operational date set for the first reactor by 2023, with the entire plant set to be up and running by 2025. The project began with a 2010 intergovernmental agreement between Türkiye and Russia.

At a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, last week in Sochi, Erdogan stressed the importance of the project and ruled out any postponement.

He denied rumors that the project has been delayed.

"There are claims such as '25,000 people are not working right now or this place has been closed.,'” he said. “I do not accept such a thing and neither does the Russian side. They are working."

Erdogan added that he will inform Putin about the progress after the inspection.

* Writing by Diyar Guldogan