LMP calls for cancelling Paks nuclear power station expansion contract

Opposition LMP has submitted a bill to parliament with the aim of cancelling the contract for expanding Hungary’s sole nuclear power station in Paks, the party’s group leader said on Thursday.

“Nuclear energy is neither cheap nor safe,” László Loránt Keresztes said in Pécs, in southern Hungary, on the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. LMP wants preparatory works for the expansion project to be stopped, he added.

There is a consensus developing among Hungary’s opposition parties that the contract for the Paks project should be cancelled, he said.

The LMP politician insisted that arguments in support of expanding the facility and inviting a Russian contractor without a tender had proven null and void, adding that the project had been delayed by several years due to foot-dragging by the Russian partner.

Also, he said it “turned out to be a lie that electricity would be cheap once the project is completed”. The cost of treating and storing radioactive nuclear waste has not been incorporated into cost estimates, he said.

“There is no solution to this anywhere in the world,” he added.

Keresztes said it was “unacceptable” that the government was assessing the possibility of creating a nuclear waste disposal facility near Pécs, in the Mecsek hills.

Read alsoOrbán discusses Paks upgrade with Rosatom Director-General

Source: MTI