The pouring of concrete for the foundation slab of the reactor building at Turkey's Akkuyu-4 nuclear power plant has been completed, project company Akkuyu Nuclear said.
Akkuyu Nuclear, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said the completion of the foundation slab means construction of the reactor cavity walls can begin.
The foundation slab pouring took 3,500 tonnes of reinforcement and 17,500 cubic metres of concrete mix – enough to cover 10 football pitches to a height of one metre.
The $20bn (€18.2bn) Akkuyu, the first commercial nuclear power station in Turkey, is being built by Rosatom subsidiaries under a contract signed in 2010.
The station, in Mersin province on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast, will have four Generation III+ VVER-1200 units, with the first expected to come online in 2025 and a further unit starting every year afterwards.
Akkuyu-1 was expected to be online in 2023, but the date has been pushed back.
