Türkiye announced on Tuesday the completion of another key phase in its first nuclear power project, with fuel loading tests carried out at the plant's initial reactor unit.
The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said a nuclear fuel assembly was symbolically loaded into the pressure vessel of Akkuyu's first reactor as part of commissioning procedures.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar described it as one of the most important stages in the commissioning schedule of the first unit.
Akkuyu is being built in the southern Mersin province by Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom under a 2010 accord worth nearly $20 billion (TL 922.35 billion).
It will consist of four reactors with a combined installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts (MW), with each reactor capable of generating 1,200 MW.
