The commissioning phase has begun for the first unit of the four-unit Akkuyu nuclear power station under construction in Turkey, Anton Dedusenko, chairman of project company Akkuyu Nuclear, has said.

Dedusenko, who is also chief executive officer of Rusatom Energy International, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, confirmed the completion of general construction and the beginning of testing operations for the station’s first unit.

Akkuyu, near Mersin on the southern Mediterranean coast, is being built by Rosatom under a contract signed in 2010.