[1] The deal for the project on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis was signed between Turkish Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on May 3, 2013.

Turkey, being geographically on a highly active earthquake-prone zone, relies on top-level safety know-how and experience of Japanese experts against earthquakes.

[10] The remaining members of the Japanese consortium abandoned the project in December 2018 after a failure to reach agreement with the Turkish government on financing terms.

[12] In 2018 the project was abandoned due to construction costs having almost doubled to about $44 billion, largely because of post-Fukushima safety improvements and the fall in the value of the Turkish lira.

In September 2020, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization approved the final Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of Sinop Nuclear Power Plant.