Turkey against nuclear weapons, not nuclear energy says Turkish FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday said that Turkey was against nuclear weapons, not nuclear energy.

Speaking to reporters in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, Cavusoglu said Turkey’s Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant would produce electricity, highlighting the differences between nuclear plants and nuclear weapons.

"Nuclear plants are everywhere in the world. Some people don’t know the difference between a nuclear power plant and a nuclear weapon," Cavusoglu added.  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin launched the construction of the power plant at a ceremony in Ankara on Tuesday.

The Akkuyu plant, located in the southern Mersin province, boasts four reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, and will be built by the Russian State Nuclear Energy Agency, Rosatom.

It will produce 35 billion kilowatts of electricity at full capacity, which will meet about 10 percent of Turkey's electricity needs.

"But this is not enough for us," said Cavusoglu. "We are working with the Japanese to build a second nuclear plant in Sinop [province in northern Turkey]. Japanese companies are conducting feasibility studies."