Work starts on Akkuyu 4 turbine building

Monday, 30 May 2022

Some 17,500 cubic metres  of concrete and 3500 tonnes of steel reinforcement will be used in the construction of the foundation slab, which once complete will be 7-metres thick and cover an area of 6000 square metres.

The slab will be constructed in 12 zones, or so-called 'pours'. The pouring of 680 cubic metres of concrete in the first zone has now started, Akkuyu Nuclear announced on 27 May.

The start of concreting of the slab was preceded by the preparation of the foundation pit, including construction of the concrete bedding of the foundation with 38,000 cubic metres of concrete, the installation of waterproofing and reinforcement of the foundation slab.

"The foundation being laid under the turbine plant is a complex structure capable of accepting and evenly distributing the loads during the turbine plant operation," said Anastasia Zoteeva, director general of Akkuyu Nuclear, the project company executing the four-reactor power plant. "Foundation construction will be carried out in stages. Each separate stage is subject to strict requirements as per the quality of concrete.

"Like all technological solutions used in the Akkuyu plant construction, the process of unit 4 turbine hall building foundation slab concreting is carried out in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency safety standards, provisions of the legislation of the Republic of Turkey and the modern requirements of the global nuclear community."

The turbine building - part of the secondary circuit - will house systems and equipment related to power generation. These include the turbine plant, the deaerator (a device for purifying water from gas impurities), feed pumps and auxiliary equipment.

Akkuyu is a new nuclear power plant on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom is building four VVER-1200 reactors at Akkuyu, under a so-called BOO (build-own-operate) model. Construction of units 1-3 began in April 2018, April 2020 and March 2021, respectively. Akkuyu Nuclear received a construction licence for unit 4 in October 2021.

Once construction of unit 4 starts, Akkuyu will become the largest nuclear construction site in the world, Rosatom said, with four large reactors under construction at the same time. The first unit is scheduled to generate power in 2023, subject to further approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Authority. The 4800 MWe plant is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey's electricity needs.