Planned nuclear plant to be most quake-resistant building in Turkey

Turkey’s energy & natural resources minister said that a nuclear power plant, planned to be constructed in southern Turkey, would be the most quake-resistant building in the country

Turkey’s energy & natural resources minister said on Friday that a nuclear power plant, planned to be constructed in southern Turkey, would be the most quake-resistant building in the country.

Taner Yildiz said the project company would construct the most resistant and strongest building in Turkey.

“Turkey has not experienced a magnitude-9 earthquake so far, however the project company will build the planned Akkuyu power plant in a way that could resist to such an earthquake,” Yildiz said.

Yildiz’s remarks came after a nuclear crisis in Japan caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March. The 9.0 quake and tsunami set off the nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant on the northeast coast. Since then, four of the troubled plant’s six reactor units have seen fires, explosions or partial meltdowns. The unfolding crises have led to power shortages in Japan, forced factories to close, sent shockwaves through global manufacturing and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices.

Moreover, Japan was rocked by a magnitude-7.4 earthquake last night, and country closed another power plant that was only 20 kilometers away from the epicenter.

In May 2010, Turkey and Russia signed a deal for construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, which is expected to cost about 20 billion USD. Russian state-owned atomic power company ROSATOM is likely to start building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2013 and the first reactor is planned to generate electricity in 2018.

Russia will build four 1,200 megawatt units on Akkuyu site, and run the power plant for 60 years. Turkish state-owned electricity corporation has guaranteed to buy a fixed amount of the plant’s output over the first 15 years starting from initial commercial operation at a reported price of 12.35 US cents per kWh, with the rest of the electricity to be sold on the open market by the project company.

AA