The Russian deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin is in Istanbul to finalize the construction of a nuclear power station in the town of Mersin on the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of plans by  Russia to have a firm  foothold on the Turkish nuclear energy market.

Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on the project in Ankara in the spring of this year, and the general contractor  handling the building of the station is the Russian Atomstroiexport  company. Four power generating units are to be constructed in Mersin,  costing approximately 20 billion dollars. Russia will be responsible for the safe exploitation of  the power station. Construction work on the station  will start in 2013.

Leonid Bolshov, Director of the   Institute of the problems of security and development of unclear energy has told VOR that Russia’s vast experience in the field gives it an advantage.

Russia has the technology to produce uranium, its processing and enrichment, as well as to supply nuclear fuel to other states.  Russia also knows how to build a nuclear power station and how to use it safely, said Bolshov. To assure clients that the supply of nuclear fuel will not be interrupted by political consideration, an international nuclear fuel center has been set up in Angarsk in Russia, under the supervision of the  International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. A large quantity of low grade enriched uranium has been stored in the center, and any country having  difficulty with fuel supply can get the required amount of  nuclear fuel at the center anytime.

The project in Turkey is not the only one  being handled by Atomstroiexport company; it is currently constructing five generating units in foreign countries, and in  the next few years, it plans to build more power generating units in 15 foreign countries, including  China, India and Vietnam.

Turkey plans to build a second nuclear power station in the port of Sinop on the Black Sea coast. Russo-Turkish cooperation in the nuclear energy field is quite successful, said Metin Kilzhi Turkish deputy energy and natural resources minister, who  was speaking on Wednesday.