LMP warns of security risks around Paks nuclear power plant expansion

Budapest, March 21 (MTI) – The co-leader of the opposition LMP party said on Tuesday that the project to expand Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant was rife with security risks.

Bernadett Szél told a news conference that the project represented “the biggest political mistake of the 21st century” which would have consequences in the 22nd, too.

After the expansion is completed, the plant will produce 60 percent of the country’s electricity, and concentrating output in one place raises the risk of a terrorist attack, she said. Further, the project increases Hungary’s dependence on Russia, given that the technology for the plant, construction and financing all come from Russia, she added.

Szél said all of this would lead to a narrowing of Hungary’s room for manoeuvre on the international stage. A large part of the financing, moreover, is opaque, she said.

Source: MTI