Cooling water volume could be sufficient to keep the last turbine operating at the Paks nuclear power plant through Monday or even Tuesday, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said in a video message posted on Facebook.
Péter Magyar: Paks NPP may operate for days
Keeping the block — generating 240 MW at present — online is “very good news”, Péter Magyar said. He added that voluntary measures by industrial, institutional and household consumers had reduced electricity consumption by 700 MW on Sunday.
Output of the Paks NPP has gradually been scaled back over the past week as water levels on the Danube — used to cool the plant — reached record lows.
He added that, because water levels are expected to fall further, the possibility of shutting down the Paks nuclear power plant remains on the table, but everyone is working to ensure the last turbine can keep operating for as long as possible, under the highest standards of safety.
“The full guarantee of nuclear safety is a basic expectation from which no one can deviate; that will always remain the top priority,” the prime minister stressed.
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Péter Magyar said that on Sunday Hungarians — households, businesses, local councils and institutions alike — saved 700 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the output of one and a half Paks reactor blocks, together.
Interim President Ágnes Forsthoffer calls government and parliamentary party leaders to talks
Agnes Forsthoffer has asked the prime minister for an urgent, off-schedule briefing on the situation caused by the exceptional heatwave, and on the government’s response to it, the Sándor Palace said on Sunday, according to MTI. She has also invited the parliamentary parties’ group leaders to Monday’s meeting. Both the prime minister and the group leaders have accepted the invitation.
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