Why small modular reactors matter
Within TEKNOFEST, the final stage of the Nuclear Energy Technologies Design Competition was held at TENMAK’s Küçükçekmece campus in Istanbul. Baykar Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar met with student teams and answered their questions.
Selçuk Bayraktar revealed that they have been working with TMRS Energy on small modular reactors (SMR – Small Modular Reactor) for about 1.5–2 years:
“I’m confident that within a few years we will be able to actually build small modular reactors.”
He noted that building traditional large nuclear power plants is extremely difficult, whereas SMRs offer a more flexible technological and regulatory path, and the global trend is clearly moving in this direction.
Energy, AI and technological sovereignty
Bayraktar underlined that nuclear energy technologies are globally under strict state control, especially in the field of nuclear fuel. Even so, he believes that SMRs can become one of the key pillars of energy independence.
He also connected this to artificial intelligence, pointing out that AI’s core processing capability is ultimately limited by energy:
“If you don’t have energy, you don’t have computing. And without computing, you can’t build any of these advanced technologies.”
Bayraktar reminded that nuclear energy has an energy density roughly 2 million times higher per kilogram than other sources, calling it a strategic asset for both the region and humanity as a whole.
A “live lab” for young engineers
According to Bayraktar, participating in TEKNOFEST gives students practical experience equivalent to about 1.5–2 years of real engineering work. Teams learn project management, budgeting, and what it really means to build a complex system from scratch and demonstrate it publicly.
He emphasized that the nuclear energy competition, with one of the highest prize pools in the festival, clearly shows how important this field will be in the coming decades and that young engineers working on SMR technologies are facing a historic opportunity.
Source: AA Bilim-Teknoloji
