Hungary and Slovakia to sign nuclear cooperation pact

Hungary and Slovakia will sign a nuclear industry cooperation agreement to coordinate participation in nuclear development projects aimed at the application of the latest technologies, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Bratislava.

The foreign ministry said Szijjártó would sign the deal with Peter Dovhun, his Slovak counterpart, on Wednesday.

“This will help us apply these new technologies in our own energy mix as soon as possible,” the ministry quoted Szijjártó as saying.

Increasing the capacity of nuclear plants is the best way to resolve Europe’s energy crisis, providing large quantities of cheap and safe energy, the minister said.

Szijjártó said, however, that “still there are serious ideologically and politically motivated endeavours to put nuclear energy at a disadvantage, and strip countries largely dependent on nuclear energy of using that option.” He mentioned Hungary and Slovakia for example, as countries for whose energy security nuclear energy was crucial. “Giving up nuclear energy would run contrary to our national interests,” Szijjártó said.

“It is in our interest to be part of the extraordinary technology developments of current times … so that we can utilise new generation nuclear technologies to contribute to our energy security in future,” he said.

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