Valentin Mezhevich, First Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Natural Monopolies of the Federation Council of Russia:

 — I can’t but mention the importance of the Turkish NPP construction for the Russian party.

On July 14 the Turkish parliament ratified the Russian-Turkish agreement on construction of the first NPP in the country. The agreement was signed on May 12, 2010 in Ankara. Russia and Turkey will hereunder cooperate in the field of construction and operation of the NPP in Akkuyu in south Mersin province. After entry of this agreement into effect the Russian party will start the project campaign. The future NPP capacity is expected to be 4800 mW that is equal to 14% of todays capacity generated by Turkey

Valentin Mezhevich, First Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Natural Monopolies of the Federation Council of Russia:

This is a great success of Russian nuclear scientists. Turkey is a country primarily oriented in matters of economy at Europe, ЕС. And the fact that as a result of long and, I’d say, arduous negotiations we’ve won the tender for NPP construction is just excellent news.

I think that having developed its nuclear power industry – and as far as I know, Turkey is going to construct some more NPPs – this country can not only solve the problem of dependence on foreign sources of fuel but become one of the energy centers of the region. And here, certainly, I can’t but recollect the Bulgarian Belene the construction of which has been suspended because of political divisions inside the Bulgarian government. Meanwhile Bulgaria lacks generating capacities.

I can’t but mention the importance of the Turkish NPP construction for the Russian party. Firstly, we’ve one more time confirmed the high level of our nuclear scientists, proved our competitive ability. Secondly, active construction of NPPs not only inside our country but abroad ensures the work load for our machine-building complex, nuclear fuel producing enterprises. And this means job, decent salary and, as a consequence, social stability.