Sophisticated Yet Highly Debated: Turkey’s Move To Nuclear Energy

While nuclear power has been an agenda item for Turkey since the 1970s, the first significant steps could only be taken four years ago when the Turkish government signed an inter-governmental agreement ("IGA") with the Russian Federation for the construction of a nuclear power plant ("NPP") in the Mediterranean costal region Akkuyu, Mersin to be almost immediately followed by a second NPP project in Sinop, the Black Sea coast of Turkey. Considering the increasing demand for electricity and dependence on oil and gas imports, the government believes that it is now time, more than ever, that Turkey moves for a busy nuclear energy implementation program diversifying its energy sources with the nuclear plants generating 5% of the country's electricity within the next 10 years despite the heating debates.