Akkuyu 1 set for next stage of pre-commissioning activities

Turkey's Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 is entering the next phase of pre-commissioning testing. Rosatom's Director General announced plans to obtain a licence and begin launch operations by end-2026. The unit's control room is complete, and its Automated Process Control System, comprising over 42,000 seismically resistant components, is being prepared for adjustment work. Cold hydraulic tests that began in June are confirming the tightness and strength of reactor systems, with hot tests to follow before fuel loading. The VVER-1200 reactor is on track toward grid connection.

Where this fits

Akkuyu is a firm dispatchable power station being built on schedule under a 16-year model in which Russia finances, builds, owns and operates the plant. It represents the class of infrastructure that firm power requires: capital-intensive, long-lead, technology-concentrated, and built to run baseload for decades. By contrast, Australia's grid is being built on weather-dependent renewables backed by gas and battery storage, each adding cost, complexity and supply-chain vulnerability. Nuclear is being excluded from Australia's energy mix by law, at the same time that comparable democracies are licensing it as their decarbonisation backbone.

What it means

Akkuyu's progress is a data point in a broader strategic picture: states are choosing firm, long-lived, energy-dense power for grid stability and emissions reduction. Australia's energy security depends on a firm generation fleet. Solar and wind do not replace that requirement; they defer it to gas and battery, both of which compound Australia's dependence on imported lithium, cobalt and processed minerals. A renewables-only grid leaves Australia more, not less, dependent on strategic suppliers for critical equipment and firming capacity. The firm alternative, nuclear, remains banned by law.