Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered in a presidential decree that an ongoing nuclear power plant project must be concluded rapidly, according to the Hürriyet Daily News.
Three decrees were signed by President Erdoğan this week on the nuclear project.
One decree mentions measures to be taken regarding nuclear power plants, stressing that work carried out by the relevant public institutions should be finalized immediately in order to complete the projects without delay.
All types of support needed for nuclear power plant projects will be provided, according to the decree.
In addition the name of the Energy Investments Monitoring and Coordination Board established in 2016 was changed to the Energy and Natural Resources Investments Monitoring and Coordination Board.
The board will ensure the monitoring, supervision and coordination of the permit processes of investments to be made by the public and private sectors and will coordinate the rapid realization of all energy and natural resource investments.
According to a decree on energy savings in public buildings, all public institutions with annual energy consumption above a designated amount will be required to reduce their energy usage by 15 percent by the end of 2023.
The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry will prepare guidelines for the implementation of energy savings in public buildings and will report to the presidency on the realization of energy-saving targets.
Construction of the Akkuyu nuclear plant by a Russian-Turkish consortium in the Mediterranean province of Mersin was kicked off by President Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on April 3.
Turkey had also signed a protocol with the Japanese government for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the province of Sinop on the Black Sea coast. The construction plan was, however, later scrapped.
Safety concerns at the Akkuyu nuclear plant were recently raised by experts.
According to a thenational.ae news website report, engineers and workers at the site alleged that large cracks had repeatedly appeared in the concrete foundations due to the area’s loose and unstable ground, leading to fears of a potential nuclear disaster once the plant is operational.
They also claimed that not enough qualified technicians were working at the site and that the foundations were prone to flooding.