Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom has delivered the core safety-system components for Unit 3 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) it is building in Mersin, Türkiye. According to the company, this delivery completes the supply of equipment required for the unit's nuclear island.
The shipment to the East Cargo Terminal includes four hydraulic tanks for the unit's emergency core cooling system, manufactured at Rosatom's Mechanical Engineering Division Izhora factory in St. Petersburg. The cargo vessel travelled approximately 6,500 km. The discharge operation at the East Cargo Terminal — supervised by AKKUYU NÜKLEER AŞ logistics and safety specialists — took six hours; the tanks were unloaded one at a time from the vessel's hold by crawler crane and moved to the warehouse on a self-propelled wheeled platform.
AKKUYU NÜKLEER AŞ General Manager Sergei Butskikh said: "Equipment delivery for Akkuyu NPP continues as planned. Since the East Cargo Terminal entered service, this is the 120th vessel carrying equipment and materials for the nuclear plant to berth there." The emergency core cooling system — comprising the four tanks weighing more than 300 tonnes in total — will be filled with an aqueous boric acid solution during operation, allowing it to rapidly cool the core when primary-circuit pressure drops.
From a supply-chain perspective, this delivery is a data point showing that the VVER-1200 reactor supply chain still functions at a global scale: even during the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Russia's St. Petersburg-Mersin corridor produces a predictable logistics flow. The 120-vessel berthing milestone at the East Cargo Terminal also shows that the Akkuyu project owns dedicated infrastructure on both land and sea — proving why, for multi-year megaprojects, the buffer-stock and dedicated-port-capacity model often remains rational versus pure just-in-time procurement.
Key Takeaways:
1. Akkuyu Unit 3: more than 300 tonnes of emergency core cooling tanks delivered.
2. Manufactured at Rosatom's Izhora factory (St. Petersburg); 6,500 km route.
3. 120th vessel to berth at the East Cargo Terminal.
4. Discharge operation took six hours; nuclear-island equipment now complete.
5. St. Petersburg-Mersin corridor maintains predictable flow despite the Hormuz crisis.
