Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó received assurances from Russia’s Rosatom that it will be able to build the planned new blocks at the Paks nuclear plant. The government maintains that Hungary needs nuclear energy for the security of supply and to meet its climate policy goals.
After meeting Rosatom’s CEO Alexey Likhachev in Istanbul today, the Hungarian Foreign Minister stated that he was assured that Rosatom can carry out the investment from a technological point of view.
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority is now reviewing the requests for permits submitted by Rosatom and once they are approved, the construction of the power plant could enter the next phase.
“The construction of two new units of the nuclear power plant will serve the economic, security and strategic interests of Hungary leading to a more secure and predictable energy supply,” said the Hungarian Foreign Minister.
He underlined that Hungary would like to become as self-sufficient as possible in terms of energy production and nuclear power is a source of self-sufficiency. It’s also cheap, safe and an environmentally friendly way of producing energy, while it also ensures that Hungary can maintain the utility price cuts and meet its environmental goals.
He pointed out nuclear fuels can be stored for many years, therefore nuclear energy ensures a significant degree of independence and stability in the energy supply.
Hungary expands its 2-gigawatt Paks nuclear power plant with two Russian-made VVER reactors, each with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. It’s the largest ever investment in Hungary based on an intergovernmental agreement in 2014.
Paks accounts for half of Hungary’s electricity production and the government maintains that Hungary needs nuclear energy for the security of supply and to meet its climate policy goals so that by 2030 90 per cent of the country’s electricity production could be carbon-free.
Paks II is now the only major industrial project involving Russian-supplied VVER-1200 reactors in the European Union after the Finnish-led consortium, Fennovoima abandoned a contract with Rosatom to build Finland’s third nuclear power plant citing risks related to the war in Ukraine this week.
