Opposition calls for terminating Paks nuclear plant upgrade

The united opposition on Tuesday called on the government to terminate the Hungarian-Russian contract on the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant, in view of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

László Lóránt Keresztes, the parliamentary group leader of LMP, said Russian disregard for nuclear security was apparent in President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put nuclear forces on alert, in the Russian army’s attack on nuclear waste disposal sites and occupation of the nuclear plant’s premises in Chernobyl.

Keresztes said a nuclear waste management site “cannot be set up” near a city as it is planned near Pécs, in southern Hungary.

György Buzinkay, of the Momentum Movement, said a strong and independent Ukraine was in Hungary’s interest, partly because it would “keep Russia as far away from us as possible”.

“The EU, NATO and Hungary itself has to provide all aid in its power to help Ukraine in defeating the dictator Putin,” he said.

Buzinkay also called for the formerly Moscow-based International Investment Bank (IIB), “and the spies employed there”, to be expelled from Hungary, and for freezing the Hungarian assets of “Russian oligarchs”.

Olivio Kocsis-Cake, the deputy parliamentary group leader of the Párbeszéd party, noted that the EU sanctions imposed on Russia were also hitting the Russian bank financing the Paks upgrade. The state has so far ploughed some 300 billion forints (EUR 809m) into the project, he said, accusing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President János Áder to be “personally responsible for the unfavourable contract”.

Rather than a nuclear plant upgrade, Kocsis-Cake said

Hungary should initiate talks with the Visegrad Group and other neighbouring countries on sharing energy from renewable resources.

He called for a household energy efficiency programme, and for eliminating “factors standing in the way of the construction of solar and wind plants”.

As we wrote yesterday, work on the upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant is “proceeding according to plan”, the local unit of Russia’s Rosatom, the general contractor for the project, told regional news agency Paks-Press on Monday. Details HERE.