Nuclear plant work 6 months ahead of plan

Turkey’s plans to build its first nuclear plant are coming together ahead of schedule, according to a company executive charged with building and operating the facility.

Rauf Kasumov, deputy general manager of Akkuyu NGS, a company founded to build a nuclear plant in the southern province of Mersin, said he believed the project was six months ahead of target.

“While we were planning to begin construction in the sea in the second half of 2013, we think we’ll be at this stage by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013,” Kasumov told Anatolia news agency in a recent interview.

Akkuyu NGS is currently at the preliminary stages of the project, which includes location scouting. As part of this process, Akkuyu NGS aimed to educate Mersin’s surrounding population on the safety of the planned reactors, Kasumov said. It planned to open information offices in Mersin followed by Ankara and Istanbul.

“We have rolled up our sleeves to build the world’s safest nuclear reactor. The reactor will have four safety barriers to avoid a nuclear leak,” Kasumov said.