Turkey's nuclear projects to exceed $70 billion

Total cost of Turkey's nuclear power plant projects will exceed $70 billion by 2023, Turkish parliament's energy sub-commission head Halil Mazicioglu said on Tuesday.

"Our goal is to have both Akkuyu and Sinop nuclear power plants to be operational and a third one to be under construction by 2023," Mazicioglu said. "With the additional third project, the sum of Turkey's nuclear program will exceed $70 billion."

Several new legislations need to be introduced in order to restructure Turkey's nuclear field, including the creation of a "Nuclear Energy General Directorate" for coordinating the nuclear projects and preparing necessary infrastructure and programming.

These legislations are expected to be ratified by the parliament during the upcoming legislative term.

The Russian energy company Rosatom signed an agreement to build and operate a four reactor nuclear power plant in Mersin province on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Turkey also has plans to build a second four reactor nuclear plant in the port city of Sinop on the Black Sea coast with a Franco-Japanese consortium.

A third nuclear project is expected to be constructed with Turkey's own domestic resources.

Turkey currently relies heavily on foreign energy resources like natural gas and oil, which drives almost half of its electricity production and costs up to 60 billion dollars a year.