Erdoğan: 'We will hopefully take action for our 2nd and 3rd nuclear power stations'

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The ceremony for the first nuclear fuel delivery to the Akkuyu plant started at 16:00 today.

President and Chairperson of Justice and Development Party Chairperson Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated in the ceremony via teleconference.

Erdoğan talked to Russia's President Vladimir Putin before the ceremony on the phone and thanked him for his contributions to the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station.

UAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi made the first speech in the ceremony which is being broadcast live by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

Grossi said, addressing the ceremony, that the facility and the independent regulator in Turkey will have all the opportunities. "Only good things should come out of this facility," he stated and added, "We need the support of everyone so that there will not be any nuclear accident coming out of here."

Alexey Likhachev, the general director of the official Nuclear Energy Institution of Russia (Rosatom) which holds the majority share in Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station, and Fatih Dönmez, Turkey's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources were next to address the ceremony.

Likhachev explained that they were continuing the training of the employees of the station. He also said, "This is an important day for the cooperation between Russia and Turkey. The nuclear facility and Turkey is gaining a new status with the delivery of the first nuclear fuel to the facility."

Putin: We support Turkey with energy

Russia's President Putin participated in the ceremony via teleconference and said that the fields of cooperation between the two countries will continue and increase.

"I salute everyone who is participating in today's ceremony. Today we are delivering the first nuclear fuel to Akkuyu. This is a significant step in the cooperation between Turkey and Russia. This is a pilot project and it develops the partnership between the two countries.

"We have evaluated these issues in the telephone conversation we had with President Erdoğan. Presently we have reached agreements on some critically important issues. But the most important is our decision to develop our economic relations and trade relations further.  We will increase investments bilaterally. We will continue to be even more active in the markets of the two countries. We will be supporting Turkey with nuclear energy in the face of the increasing natural gas prices."

"We have also decided to increase the coordination between our countries regarding our agricultural products. The flour to arrive in the Russian regions will be produced in the factories in Turkey. The same cooperation will continue in tourism. We have decided to increase the frequency of flights bilaterally."

Erdoğan: "The contractor undertakes the responsibility"

President and Chairperson of Justice and Development Party Chairperson Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also participated in the ceremony via teleconference. Important parts of the speech Erdoğan made were the following.

"We are together on an important day that will place Turkey among the big nuclear powers in the world. Together with this ceremony, we show that we were able to keep yet another promise that we have made to our nation. We are now witnessing the bringing of nuclear fuel to the facility site. Thanks to the nuclear fuel arriving in our station by air and by sea, our facility is granted a nuclear power station status today.

"I send my greetings to Putin and all officers of Russia who supported our Akkuyu project from the start. I congratulate all personnel from Russia and Turkey.

"Akkuyu is our biggest joint investment. The investment value is 20 billion dollars. Besides construction, the operation and responsibility of the facility are undertaken by the contractor.

"We will hopefully take action for our second and third nuclear power stations in the shortest possible time. I am paying my respects and sending my greetings to you all to meet face-to-face later." (TY/PE)