Turkish nuclear power plant came across a block

According to Kommersant, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which Rosatom is building in southern Turkey, may have problems with the supply of electrical equipment from the German Siemens Energy. The German regulator has not yet issued a full set of permits for its export. Hungary, where Rosatom is building the Paks-2 nuclear power plant, also faced similar problems. Rosatom says that they have not received official notifications about the suspension of supplies, and Siemens Energy complies with the parameters of the contract.

The German Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (BAFA) did not issue all the necessary permits to the German Siemens Energy for the supply of an integrated switchgear (KRUE) to the Akkuyu nuclear power plant under construction by Rosatom in Turkey, sources told Kommersant. According to one of them, BAFA did not give Siemens permission to export the documentation. Also, the German side has doubts about the point of delivery of the equipment due to fears that the switchgear can be imported into Russia, although this type of electrical equipment is manufactured for a specific facility.

According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the Turkish authorities initiated negotiations with the German government regarding the conditions under which the delivery would be possible. One of Kommersant’s sources believes that the solution to the problem could be the delivery of switchgear under the supervision of Siemens specialists directly to the nuclear power plant, but this will increase the cost of the project, which is now estimated at $20 billion.

Rosatom has been building Turkey’s first four-reactor nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast since 2018. Moscow and Ankara are currently negotiating the construction of another nuclear power plant in Sinop on the Black Sea coast. As Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez reported on January 30, the first reactor of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant is planned to be launched before the end of the year. It is assumed that Akkuyu will cover up to 10% of Turkey’s energy consumption.

On the eve it became known that BAFA blocked supplies for the Paks-2 nuclear power plant under construction by Rosatom in Hungary. The agency, in particular, refused to issue permission to Siemens Energy to supply a process control system. Siemens Energy shares a contract with the French Framatome, which France has given such permission. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on February 14 that he considers Berlin’s actions as a violation of sovereignty.

“The German government continues to block the delivery of the already contracted control system to the Paks nuclear power plant by Siemens Energy. This can be regarded as an attack on our sovereignty, since the security of energy supply is a matter of sovereignty,” the minister said, stressing that German officials “have no legal basis to block the supply.”

The design company of Akkuyu Nuclear NPP (owned by Rosatom) told Kommersant that to date there have been no official notifications about stopping the supply of equipment to the company. According to her, Siemens Energy has almost completely completed the manufacture of power equipment for switchgear for Akkuyu: “Now our partner Siemens Energy is complying with its contractual obligations for the supply of equipment.” BAFA and Siemens Energy did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.

The US and EU countries have so far refused to impose large-scale sanctions against the Russian nuclear industry in response to the start of Russian military operations in Ukraine. In early January, the Ukrainian government announced that it had stepped up efforts to persuade the EU to impose sanctions against Rosatom, in which Kyiv was supported by Warsaw. However, in the tenth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation currently being discussed, there are no restrictions on Rosatom due to the opposition of Bulgaria and Hungary.

As independent analyst Yury Melnikov notes, switchgears do not belong to the main equipment of the power plant and are not included in the nuclear fuel cycle – they are electrical equipment. “In addition to European ones, there are suppliers from North America, Southeast Asia, China, etc. If a change of supplier is required, this will delay the project, but it is unlikely to be critical,” he believes.

Formally, Turkey is not a country subject to export restrictions due to sanctions, says Anastasia Simonova, head of international legal practice at K&P Group. However, the US and EU countries consider Turkey as a jurisdiction used to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions against the Russian Federation and organize parallel imports. In this regard, in her opinion, the alleged BAFA ban can be seen as part of the policy of foreign policy pressure on Turkey. However, the lawyer adds, from the point of view of legislation, it “seems unreasonable, especially given the technical features of the switchgear, it is very unlikely that in this case there is a risk that such equipment will be resold in the Russian Federation and used to bypass sanctions restrictions.”

Tatyana Dyatel