Türkiye said on Monday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Danish nuclear tech developer Copenhagen Atomics to explore the use of the country's thorium resources in next-generation atomic technologies.
The agreement was signed by the Türkiye Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency (TENMAK), an affiliated institution of the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.
The cooperation will focus on developing technologies that can use thorium, including the domestic production of thorium compounds, the ministry said in a statement.
Thorium is heavily researched as a cleaner, safer alternative to uranium in nuclear reactors. It is said to be roughly three to four times more abundant in the Earth's crust than uranium.
The agreement also aims to bring Turkish industrial and technology companies, as well as researchers, into efforts to develop high-value nuclear technologies based on the country's thorium resources.
One of the main areas of work will be research and development and project design for producing thorium in Türkiye in a form suitable for use in next-generation nuclear reactors, particularly molten salt reactors.
The parties aim to produce thorium compounds domestically that meet nuclear fuel standards and eventually establish Türkiye as an internationally competitive supplier in the field, the ministry said.
Copenhagen Atomics is conducting research and development on molten salt reactors, a fourth-generation reactor technology that can enable thorium to be used in the nuclear fuel cycle.
The Danish company is focused on a modular molten salt reactor concept called "Onion Core." Under the agreement with TENMAK, it will assess the technology in terms of Türkiye's research infrastructure, human resources and industrial capabilities.
Türkiye seeks to expand nuclear generation alongside renewable energy as it pursues its net-zero emissions goals.
In addition to the four-reactor Akkuyu, its first nuclear plant under construction, the government plans to build large-scale power stations in Sinop on the Black Sea coast and in the Thrace region.
Türkiye targets 15 gigawatts (GW) of conventional nuclear capacity, while also aiming to install 5 GW of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity by 2050. Akkuyu will have a combined installed capacity of 4,800 MW.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said SMRs, alongside large-scale reactors, were developing rapidly as part of what he described as a new era for nuclear energy.
"Türkiye is also engaged in significant activities in this area, with many projects progressing in parallel," Bayraktar said, adding that investors and public institutions were working together on several projects.
He said government incentives had generated significant interest in SMR technologies and that Türkiye was examining how different technologies could be brought into the country.
"Over the next few years, it will become clear which of these technologies can advance further and actually be commercialized," Bayraktar said.
He said the TENMAK-Copenhagen Atomics agreement was distinctive because thorium was a prominent fuel option in the Danish company's SMR technology.
"Thorium is very abundant in our country, and a technology based on it is therefore particularly important because we believe it could eliminate dependence on foreign fuel," Bayraktar said.
Thorium-based fuel cycles are said to produce less long-lived radioactive waste, cannot suffer traditional meltdowns, and are harder to weaponize.
Bayraktar added that he hoped the cooperation would produce results and that the work could eventually lead to a commercial product.
"The fact that it involves a different fuel, particularly thorium, makes this cooperation important," Bayraktar said.
