A senior official in Turkey's energy ministry said that a seven-year build for the country's first nuclear power reactor would mean that the official schedule calling for an operational start in 2019-2020 was already infeasible.
The projected start date for the country's first Russian-built reactors was now 2022 at the earliest, the official said.
Turkey, which spends $50 billion on imported energy each year, has plans to build four reactors that would have the capacity of producing 5 percent of its electricity generation. This would reduce the country's dependence on natural gas from Russia, The Moscow Times reported.
Plans call for four 1,200 megawatt reactors built by Russia's nuclear power giant Rosatom. The reactors are slated for the town of Akkuyu in southern Turkey.
Rosatom has created Akkuyu NGS as the company that would manage the construction project. In the meantime, it has taken a year for Turkey to approve an environmental review. Scrutiny of the project has increased since the Great East Japan Earthquake disabled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011. The environmental permits were issued in December.
There are also financial concerns that have hampered the start of the build in Turkey.
“The issue has, in recent months, become far more complicated because of Russia's economic deterioration,” said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the Royal United Service Institute, a British think-tank.
Rosatom has been attempting to sell 49 percent of its stake in Akkuyu NGS, but has been unable to find a buyer, the Times reported.