Bayraktar spoke at the World Atomic Days panel titled "Nuclear Energy for People and Planet" organized by Rosatom within the scope of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31).
Stating that Türkiye's economy is growing, its population is increasing and the urbanization process is continuing, Bayraktar said that they are trying to address different challenges in the field of energy at the same time.
Pointing out that one of them is supply security, Bayraktar said, "I think this is the number one priority for all countries today. It is becoming more and more difficult to provide reliable energy to our citizens at affordable costs. When you look at supply security, you see that this is an ever-changing target. Our demand is increasing day by day." he said.
Reminding that before COP31, they invited the world countries to commit to the 35 percent electrification target by 2035 and announced the "National Energy 2040" vision, Bayraktar stated that one of the main goals of this vision is electrification.
Minister Bayraktar continued as follows: "We need a few basic elements to achieve this. We have placed energy efficiency at the center of our strategy. We benefit from our solar, wind, geothermal and biomass capacity, but we have a much greater potential in these areas. We need to use our entire renewable energy potential. However, we also need nuclear energy. All the resources we have listed here are intermittent resources. Solar and wind are very valuable, but we also need zero-carbon energy solutions. Not only for Turkey, but for the whole world, we can deal with climate change without nuclear energy." "We cannot talk about how serious we are in the fight. We need nuclear energy."
"We will be able to meet at least 10 to 12 percent of our electricity needs from clean sources."
Pointing out that the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is progressing successfully, Bayraktar made the following assessment: "I hope that we will be able to commission this power plant in the coming weeks and start producing electricity from there. However, we need to reach an installed capacity of at least 15 gigawatts from traditional, large-scale nuclear reactors. In addition, we are also considering creating a small modular reactor (SMR) capacity of at least 5 gigawatts in Türkiye. By combining these two resources, we will be able to produce electricity from here in 2050." "We aim to reach an installed nuclear power capacity of 20 gigawatts. Thus, we will be able to meet at least 10 to 12 percent of our electricity needs from clean sources. Accordingly, we will reduce our carbon emissions. In this way, we will be able to establish the right balance in electricity production. At the end of the day, all renewable energy sources need a strong baseload electricity generation capacity. That is why nuclear energy plays an extremely critical role in our energy systems."
Minister Bayraktar stated that Russian technologies are very reliable and proven technologies, and that they carry out a comprehensive nuclear energy cooperation with Russia, including the development of human resources.
Stating that more than 300 students graduating from Russian universities and colleges work in Akkuyu, Bayraktar emphasized that localization is an important part of this cooperation.
Bayraktar stated that they met with different technology providers for the second and third nuclear power plant projects and added that Russia has always been a reliable supplier for Türkiye.
