OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2013. On the 31st of January, 2013, in Mersin Province an expanded information meeting of representatives of Akkuyu NPP and Turkish business community was held in the large conference-hall of the Trade and Industry Complex. The main objective of the forum was to tell the heads of business groups about the construction plans. 300 representatives of business groups gathered to get the first-hand information and evaluate their capabilities of participating in the erection of Turkey’s first NPP.

In his opening remarks, Halil Yilmaz, the Director of the organizational and industrial complex for Mersin-Tarsus region, thanked Akkuyu NPP for setting the open dialogue and highlighted its high significance for the future development of the Turkish industry.  

Head of the Construction and Installation Department of Atomstroyexport (the principal construction contractor) Sergey Karnaushenko said the scale of construction works to build Akkuyu NPP, which will consist of four power units, is very large. At the construction and installation stage, a volume of concrete will be more than 2 million cubic meters. “A volume of metal structures will be more than 500,000 tons. On the whole, about 200 million of cubic meters of soil will have to be dealt with. Over 100,000 cubic meters of concrete, about 20,000 tons of steel and some 1,900 tons of piping will be used for the reactor building,” Sergey Karnaushenko pointed out.

Answering a question on bidding procedures related to the construction, he said: “The tender for the pre-construction earthwork continues. Its results will be announced additionally. The work will start after all necessary licenses and permits are in place for the NPP pre-construction phase. After the pre-construction phase, according to the schedule we plan to pour concrete of the first power unit. The procurement information is on the Russian ROSATOM’s website.

Alexander Mironov, the Director of Atomstroyexport’s Branch in the Republic of Turkey told the audience about the current situation on the Akkuyu NPP construction site. “We have 35 years of experience in building nuclear power plants. Partly because of this Atomstroyexport was designated as the principal contractor for the Akkuyu NPP project. In 2012 an analysis of the Turkish market of supplies and services was carried out; we visited over 150 Turkish enterprises and suppliers. Both the construction works and purchases will be done by Atomstroyexport. All additional information on issues of interest can be obtained from the Russian ROSATOM and Akkuyu NPP project company. The information must be posted on an open and accessible Internet resource.”

At the meeting many questions were asked and the Russian representatives provided detailed answers using presentations. At the end of the open dialogue, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Director of the organizational and industrial complex for Mersin-Tarsus region Sabri Tekli noted that the Turkish companies had a great potential and many of them would bid for rendering services during the construction process of the large-scale power generation facility of the Republic of Turkey.