The 320-tonne reactor pressure vessel for the fourth and final unit of the Akkuyu NPP arrived at the site's Eastern Cargo Terminal on 12 November 2025 after a combined road-sea journey from the Atommash plant.
The 320-tonne reactor pressure vessel for the fourth and final unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant arrived at the site's Eastern Cargo Terminal on 12 November 2025. According to Rosatom's official announcement, the vessel — around 13 metres long and 4.5 metres in diameter — was dispatched from the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk at the beginning of October 2025 and carried to Turkey by combined road and sea transport. The shipment was completed as a multi-stage logistics operation lasting roughly six weeks, from early October to 12 November (Source).
A sea leg of more than 3,000 kilometres
According to NucNet, the maritime leg of the shipment exceeded 3,000 kilometres. The same consignment also carried the equipment lock for Unit 3 and the pressuriser for Unit 4, bringing several critical large components to the site in a single voyage. An equipment lock is the transfer system through which large equipment enters the reactor building, while the pressuriser is one of the main components responsible for controlling primary circuit pressure (Source). Anadolu Agency had reported in October 2025 that the vessel's shipment from Atommash to Turkey was under way (Source).
The 250th reactor vessel of the Russian nuclear industry
According to Rosatom, this was the 250th reactor vessel produced in the history of the Russian nuclear industry — a manufacturing milestone the company highlighted in its official press release. With the delivery, the reactor pressure vessels of all four Akkuyu units had reached the site, marking a symbolic threshold in the plant's main equipment supply programme.
The scope of combined heavy transport
Moving reactor components weighing hundreds of tonnes from factory to port by road, loading them onto specialised vessels, and discharging them at a dedicated site terminal after a sea passage of thousands of kilometres is a process that demands route surveys, port equipment planning and multi-party coordination. Dedicated marine reception facilities such as the Eastern Cargo Terminal allow components of this scale to be received directly at the construction site. Shipments of this kind are considered among the most comprehensive operation types in the field of nuclear project transportation.
The fact that all four units' reactor vessels were on site as of November 2025 received broad coverage in official announcements and the international trade press alike, as one of the developments showing that the main items of the Akkuyu project's equipment supply chain had been closed out.