ISTANBUL (AP) — The presidents of Turkey and Russia remotely inaugurated the construction of a third nuclear reactor at the Akkuyu power plant in southern Turkey Wednesday, vowing to continue their close cooperation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the plant would launch Turkey into the ”league of nuclear energy countries” and called it a “symbol of Turkish-Russian cooperation.”Russia is building Turkey’s first nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast in Mersin province. The two countries signed a cooperation agreement in 2010 and began construction in 2018. Turkey — whose electricity production is based on gas-burning plants and hydroelectric units — is largely dependent on power imports, buying natural gas from Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, among others. Nuclear power is a “strategic step” for energy security, Erdogan said.

Source: Libya Today March 10, 2021 14:03 UTC