Turkey, US sign $2M grant deal for small nuclear reactors: What to know

ANKARA — Turkey and the United States signed a grant agreement Tuesday to support work toward the deployment of small modular reactors in Turkey, as Ankara seeks to diversify its nuclear partnerships beyond Russia and expand its long-term nuclear energy capacity.

What happened: The US Trade and Development Agency and Turkey’s state-owned nuclear developer, TUNAS, signed a grant agreement in New York, with Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and USTDA Deputy Director Thomas Hardy overseeing the ceremony.

Under the agreement, USTDA will fund technical assistance for TUNAS to draw up the regulatory, institutional and financial framework needed for Turkish private companies to deploy small modular reactor technology, according to USTDA.

While there is no official figure for the grant, the funding will cover a technical study costing approximately $2 million and expected to last at least a year, according to Bloomberg HT.

The program will also assess how leading US reactor designs could meet Turkey’s needs, giving American nuclear companies an early entry point into the Turkish market, the USTDA said in a statement.

Background: Turkey has stepped up its push for smaller reactors as part of a broader plan to expand nuclear generation by 2050.

Bayraktar said in November 2025 that the country aims to have 12 large conventional reactors and another 5,000 megawatts of SMR capacity by 2050, enough for nuclear power to provide about 10%-15% of the country’s electricity needs.

Turkey is seeking partners for eight conventional reactors, four of them planned for Sinop on the Black Sea and four for the northwestern Thrace region. Bayraktar said in March that Ankara was in talks with South Korea, Canada, China and Russia over the projects.

Why it matters: The deal gives Ankara another avenue to diversify its nuclear partnerships and reduce its reliance on Russia as it expands nuclear energy capacity.

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, the roughly $20 billion Akkuyu facility on the Mediterranean coast, is being built by Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom. Its four reactors will have a combined capacity of 4,800 megawatts, with Ankara now aiming to produce the first electricity from the plant in 2026 after repeated delays.

Go deeper: US cooperation gives Ankara another potential nuclear partner as it balances its longstanding energy relationship with Moscow.

“We are determined to diversify our energy mix,” Bayraktar wrote on X Tuesday.

The diversification also reflects Ankara’s effort to balance ties with Washington and Moscow. Turkey has maintained political and energy ties with Russia and stayed out of Western sanctions, while continuing military support for Ukraine and hosting unsuccessful peace talks in 2022 and 2025.