Paks II upgrade price “fixed” at EUR 12.5 bn

The upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant has a “fixed price” of 12.5 billion euros, János Süli, the minister-elect without portfolio in charge of planning and implementing construction of two more blocks at the plant, said in a hearing before parliament’s economic committee on Tuesday.

Russia is lending Hungary 10 billion euros of the cost and 2.5 billion euros is coming from domestic sources, Süli said.

The credit is favourable: Hungary has the right to make early repayments without penalty, if the budget allows or if there are better lending conditions on the market, he added.

Süli said his priority for 2018 would be to submit the construction permit for the two new blocks to the National Atomic Energy Office. The office will have 15 months to evaluate the documentation of some 300,000 pages and the permit is expected to be issued in late 2019 or early 2020, which will allow for meeting the project’s completion deadline of 2026-27, he said.

Answering a question, Süli said that Hungary’s loan agreement with Russia was publicly available on parliament’s website.

He added that the government wants to make the construction agreements public, too, and negotiations are under way with the Russian side.

Süli served as minister in charge of the Paks II upgrade in the previous Fidesz-KDNP government for about one year.

The committee supported Süli’s nomination with 10 votes in support, 3 against, and two abstentions.

Featured image: Daily News Hungary

Source: MTI