America’s atomic overture to Turkey

As Russia works to complete Ankara's first nuclear plant, the U.S. wants in.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shakes hands with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a public event commemorating construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.

A century after its founding as a republic, Turkey – officially now Türkiye – is abandoning its secular roots, reemerging as a regional power, and growing its economy at the fourth-fastest rate this year in the 38-nation club of rich countries. 

Just look at how much energy the country now needs. Since the start of this century, electricity generation in the Anatolian giant has grown by nearly 200%, becoming Europe’s third-largest power producer behind Germany and France and ahead of the United Kingdom. Coal and natural gas make up nearly 58% of the electricity mix, followed by hydroelectric dams, wind turbines and solar panels. 

But last year, Turkey launched unit 1 at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, the country’s debut atomic power station. The $20 billion megaproject built by the Russian government is expected to complete another three reactors at the site in the next two years. The four units, all Rosatom-designed VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors, will pump out enough electricity to power millions of homes without carbon emissions. 

In April, when the first reactor went live, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed what he called “a flagship project” that “brings both mutual economic benefits” and strengthens “the multi-faceted partnership between” Moscow and one of the most influential members of the NATO alliance. 

The Kremlin is an obvious vendor for Turkey’s first atomic power plant because Russia is the vendor of choice for most nuclear newcomer countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Other nuclear exporters tried to build Turkey’s debut reactors. A French-Japanese consortium put in a bid in the mid 2000s that ultimately fizzled. China pitched building one of its modified Westinghouse reactors back in 2014. That competition is now heating up again as markets bet on a forthcoming nuclear renaissance.