Russia's Rosatom has come forward with the first $700 million in funding to build Turkey's first nuclear plant, the Turkish prime minister announced Monday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the financing following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Turkey's Sabah newspaper quoted the prime minister as saying the initial capital inflow will increase to $2.4 billion. The investments follow Russia's earlier agreement to build, own and operate the Akkuyu nuclear plant. Russian state-backed companies will finance the entire $25 billion project, with longer-term plans to potentially sell up to 49 percent of it to other investors.
The two countries reached an agreement in 2010 for Rosatom to build four 1,200 megawatt AES-2006 reactors at the site on the Mediterranean coast, according to the World Nuclear Association. The project received a site license this year, and limited work is scheduled to begin in 2013. A full construction license is expected the following year. The first reactor is scheduled to come online in 2020.