Construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant is being delayed because Germany's Siemens Energy is withholding key parts required for it to be built by Russia's Rosatom, which is seeking alternatives in China, Turkey's energy minister said on Wednesday.
Though the Russian company has struck alternative agreements with Chinese companies to produce equivalent parts, Siemens Energy's non-delivery will delay launching the first reactor by a few months, Alparslan Bayraktar told state-run Anadolu agency.
Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear energy company, has been building the Akkuyu nuclear plant in the Turkish Mediterranean province of Mersin under an agreement with Ankara.
NATO member Turkey had initially planned to launch the first reactor in 2023. But that has been delayed. Last year, nuclear fuel was for the first time loaded into the first power unit at the site.
In July, President Tayyip Erdogan said that Germany was not allowing the export of some parts required for the Akkuyu plant, making them wait in customs.
"This has seriously bothered us. I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of that in our bilateral meeting," Erdogan told reporters at the time, on his flight back from a NATO Summit in Washington.