The steel dome of the outer containment building has been completed at Unit 1 of Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear power station, project contractor Rosatom said.

The Russian state-owned nuclear corporation is supplying four of its Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurise water reactor units for Ankara’s first nuclear power station, on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast.

Rosatom said the 147-tonne top section of the dome took six hours to lift in place. Workers installed the lower section of the dome in August 2024.

According to Rosatom, the VVER-1200 reactor system design has a two-part containment – an external one to protect from physical influence and impact and an inner one to secure the hermetic tightness around the core reactor equipment and piping.

Construction of Akkuyu-1 began in April 2018. The unit was originally scheduled to be online in 2023, but latest projections have this is now likely to be 2025. A further unit at the site is expected to start every year afterwards.

Rosatom signed agreements with Turkey to build the Akkuyu units in 2010 and 2013. The cost of the station has been reported at $20bn (€18bn).