Turkey begins talks with the US for the purchase of small-scale nuclear reactors

The American financial agency Bloomberg affirmed that the government and the private sector of Turkey are in talks with the US for the purchase of small nuclear reactors. It was claimed that the nuclear talks were held with the aim of reducing reliance on coal.

“There is great interest in nuclear power as a replacement for coal-fired power plants,” Justin Friedman, a senior adviser on nuclear power at the US State Department, told Bloomberg.

NUCLEAR PRODUCTION WILL INCREASE

Referring to Turkey’s goal of producing 20 gigawatts of nuclear electricity by 2050, Friedman said there is ample scope for the purchase of up to 35 small modular reactors known as SMRs.

“The question now is how do we work together across governments to open the door for business-to-business collaboration,” Friedman said. The Ministry of Energy did not comment on the matter.

US manufacturers of SMR include NuScale Power and the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower. SMRs generate electricity on average one tenth the size of conventional reactors. While it is claimed that a purchase of this scale requires an investment of billions of dollars, it is unclear how it will be financed.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH RUSSIA CONTINUE

The reactor talks with the US coincided with a period when the Russian public nuclear power company Rosatom was nearing completion of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. The government is also negotiating with Rosatom for a second nuclear power plant in Sinop.

According to the Ministry of Energy, there are 68 coal-fired power plants in Turkey. These power plants covered about a third of the electricity needs last year. Turkey aims to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2053.