Russian nuclear state corporation Rosatom returned in 2016 to active work the project of construction the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey, Rosatom’s CEO Alexey Likhachev said on Saturday.
Russia and Turkey signed an agreement to construct and operate Turkey’s first nuclear power plant at the Akkuyu site in the southern Turkish province of Mersin in May 2010. The plant is expected to produce about 35 billion kilowatt-hours per year, Sputnik International reports.
Russian-Turkish relations deteriorated after the downing of a Russian military plane by a Turkish fighter jet in Syria on November 24, 2015. Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Turkey in response to what Putin then described as a "stab in the back." A thaw in relations between Moscow and Ankara began in June following Turkey's apology to Russia.