Paks nuclear plant project

EC approves Hungarian Paks upgrade contract changes

paks ii visual plan

The European Commission has approved the modifications to the contracts of the expansion of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, allowing for the project to be speeded up, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday.

The changes to the contracts and the European Union‘s approval will make it possible for the plant’s new blocks to begin operating by the very beginning of the next decade, with the project applying the strictest nuclear regulations, Szijjártó said on Facebook.

The Paks project guarantees the long-term security of Hungary’s energy supply, the minister said.

“The new Paks investment is the guarantee that we can preserve the achievements of the price caps on utility bills in the long run and sustain Europe’s lowest prices for the Hungarian people,” Szijjártó said.

He said the recent months had proven that that countries that can produce as much of their own energy as possible will be the most secure in the coming period.

Hungary’s natural resources and geographical position make nuclear energy the most suitable to protect the country from the uncertainties of the international markets, he said. This makes it important for the new blocks to be completed as soon as possible, he added.

Szijjártó noted that because the project’s construction and financing contracts were signed nine years ago, and the legal, technical and physical circumstances had all changed since then, it was necessary to modify the contracts with a view to speeding up the project and ensuring Hungary’s independence from the international energy markets.

He noted that the Hungarian government reached an agreement with the Russian government and Rosatom in April on the changes to the contracts, adding that these could only enter into force after being approved by the EU.

“Hungary submitted the draft modifications to the European Commission, which gave us the green light yesterday,” Szijjártó said.

Opposition politician demands transparency concerning Paks NPP upgrade

Benedek Jávor Paks transparency

The opposition Párbeszéd-Greens party demands the disclosure of all contracts related to the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, including the insurance contracts, since the existence of these is a basic condition of the implementation of the project, Benedek Jávor, a former MEP of Párbeszéd, said at an online press conference on Sunday.

“Information related to Paks cannot be kept secret all the time! The Hungarian public has the right to know what is happening with the Paks project, which will be built with their money,” Jávor said. Therefore, he said, Párbeszéd-Greens have submitted a written question to parliament to find out whether Hungarikum Biztosítási Alkusz, which won the public procurement tender for the insurance brokerage service called in 2020, has fulfilled its task undertaken in the procedure.

Jávor said the conclusion of the insurance contracts for the Paks II project is far behind schedule. He noted that Hungarikum Biztosítási, owned by [businessman] Lőrinc Mészáros, received 450 million forints (EUR 1.2m) to seek out the best insurance options available on the market for the project. This was originally supposed to happen by September 27, 2021, but the deadline was extended twice, most recently until January 27, 2023.

Paks nuclear power plant
Paks NPP. Photo: FB Péter Szijjártó

Several months have passed since then, Jávor said, and there is still no information on whether the insurance broker has completed its task, whether the project has valid insurance, who insures the upgrade of the power plant and under what conditions, and at what cost, he said. Jávor pointed out that nuclear energy production is a highly risky industry, which is why all nuclear power plants have extensive insurance systems. One of the basic conditions of the construction of the two new blocks of the Paks nuclear power plant is that the project has general liability insurance, construction-installation insurance and transport insurance, he said.

Government: nuclear investments preserve Earth

Foreign minister Péter Szijjártó nuclear Earth

Preserving the Earth for future generations and meeting climate targets is contingent on making investments in nuclear energy and the electric vehicle industry, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a panel discussion on energy affairs in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Green targets – no politics

Hungary’s government aims to maintain a well-balanced approach to investments in energy and environmental protection as both aspects are needed to boost competitiveness, the foreign ministry cited Szijjártó as saying. “We never considered a green deal or green targets as political or ideological issues but ways to protect the planet for future generations,” he said. Instead of seeking to profit from political communications, the international community should prepare well-grounded, pragmatic and realistic strategies, he said. Hungary is one of fewer than twenty countries in the world that has managed in recent years to reduce harmful emissions while boosting economic growth, he said.

Green change realistically – goes the video’s title:

As part of this strategy, Hungary will become climate neutral by 2050, and by expanding nuclear and solar energy capacities, 90 percent of electricity production will become carbon neutral by 2030 as against the current 65 percent, he added. Solar energy capacity will grow from the current 4,500 megawatts to 12,000 megawatts by 2050 and nuclear energy capacity from 2,000 megawatts to 4,400 megawatts, he said. Szijjártó warned that burden-sharing could not be called fair when countries that contribute to climate change the least suffer its consequences the most. The largest polluters should take a much greater role in cutting their emissions, he said.

Abu Dhabi in photos:

Paks nuclear power plant extension helps Earth?

Some 14 percent of global air-polluting emissions are linked to public road transport, he said, adding that there was “no hope” of preserving Earth and climate targets without making the transition to electric vehicles, he said, adding that developed countries must work together on this. Hungary has taken great responsibility in this field as the fourth largest electric battery producer in the world, he said, adding that the country was becoming a meeting point for Eastern and Western companies in the sector. Szijjártó said that nuclear energy was a safe and environmentally friendly method for producing energy, enabling states to become independent of the fluctuations of international markets. The project to add new reactor blocks to the Paks nuclear power station will enable carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced by 17 million tonnes and gas use by 3-3.5 billion cubic metres annually, he added.

Despite all these advantages, further efforts are needed to fight discrimination against nuclear energy in the European Union, he said. Some EU member states, he added, were trying to hinder the ongoing Paks expansion project. Szijjártó said the German government’s refusal to approve an earlier approved deal for Siemens Energy to supply control technology for the Paks plant was “unfair” and “an attack against Hungary’s sovereignty”.

Opposition LMP wants wind turbines instead of Paks II NPP expansion

pinwheel-wind turbine

Opposition LMP on Tuesday accused the government of amending the contracts on the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant “to serve Russian interests rather than allowing permits for wind turbines in Hungary”.

LMP politician Örs Tetlák told a press conference that a Hungarian company would replace Russian state-owned Rosatom as the main Paks contractor for the two new blocks under construction, and all the risks would now be borne by a Hungarian firm, MTI wrote. Rosatom promised a “turnkey plant at a fixed price” in 2014, Tetlák said. Now, the switch in contractors may drive a jump in costs, and the costs of potential delays will also weigh on Hungarians, he said.

LMP maintains that the project should be scrapped and not amended with “disadvantageous and senseless modifications”, he said. Rather than building a new nuclear plant, the government should work to increase the country’s energy efficiency and to use sustainable resources, he said. To achieve that, Tetlák called on the government to fulfill its commitment to the European Commission to allow wind turbines in the country, which it had failed to do until the deadline on March 31, he said. The commitment was one of the conditions to access resources from the EU’s Resilience and Recovery Facility, he said.

Hungarian Foreign Minister criticises EU support for Ukraine

foreign minister szijjártó

The European Union is dominated by “an atmosphere of war”, with the vast majority of member states in favour of a faster delivery of even more weapons to Ukraine, while “pro-peace players are under serious attack”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Luxembourg on Monday.

Several EU member states believe the bloc still has not done enough to support Ukraine, Szijjártó told a press conference during a break in a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, according to a ministry statement.

“If we wanted to summarise the position expressed by the majority of European countries here, then we could say that we should spend more on sending even more weapons to Ukraine even faster,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, those who speak out in favour of peace face “serious political and verbal attacks”, he added.

As we wrote before about leaked Pentagon docs, this is how Hungary supplies Ukraine with arms.

Concerning Ukrainian grain exports, Szijjártó noted that the government had agreed to set up so-called solidarity corridors with a view to easing the global food crisis, “but reality turned out different”.

Most of the grain and agricultural products exported by Ukraine got stuck in central Europe, “and clearly this wasn’t the agreement”, he said.

The European Commission had a duty to remedy the situation immediately and make it clear that the agreement between the EU and Ukraine applied to transit deliveries, Szijjártó said.

Hungary is keeping to the original concept by banning direct grain imports from Ukraine while allowing transit shipments, he said.

On another subject, Szijjártó criticised planned sanctions on the Russian nuclear energy sector, saying Hungary was already paying the price of war when it came to energy supply.

Hungary can buy oil either via Croatia or Ukraine, and transit fees have increased significantly in both directions, the minister said.

“And now they want to force through measures that would put Hungary in a difficult situation not just in terms of energy prices, but also in terms of supply security,” he warned.

Hungary needs 2,400MW of new energy sources by the beginning of the next decade, which can only be produced in an eco-friendly way with nuclear reactors, he said.

If the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant is rendered untenable, then Hungary will not be able to produce the electricity needed for households and for the economy to function for the beginning of the next decade, Szijjártó said.

He noted that the contract for the expansion of the Paks plant had been signed over nine years ago and approved by Brussels.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said another Hungarian citizen had been rescued from Sudan amid the civil war there. The individual and their spouse have safely made it to Ethiopia where they are receiving assistance from the Hungarian embassy staff, he said.

He added that because phone and internet services in Khartoum are currently down, the government has been unable to make contact with the five other Hungarians in the Sudanese capital. The ministry will update the public on any developments in the matter, he said.

Is Hungary lobbying for Belarus in the EU?

Belarus Hungary business forum

Belarus media is sure that Hungary is lobbying for their country’s economic interests in the EU. Recently the country’s foreign minister visited Hungary as well.

Hungary is lobbying for Belarussian economic interests in the EU, reform.by reports. The two countries could have made a deal on nuclear cooperation.

Last week Belarussian Foreign Minister Syarhey Aleynik had a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó. According to the official MTI report, the two diplomats talked about cooperation in sectors that are not affected by sanctions. However, now the ambassador of Belarus to Hungary, Vladimir Ulakhovich confirmed that with the help of Hungary, they are hoping to return to the EU market with one of their top export products.

According to the diplomat, Hungary is lobbying the EU to let Belarussian pellet fuels back to the European market, which is now under sanctions. He also confirmed that the country suffers “sensitive” losses in their export portfolio.

“In wood processing, our Hungarian partners are kind of lobbying to at least get the quotas for pellets through, which are in great demand on the European market” – Ulakhovich said. “Despite the latest happenings, Belarus still has many friends in Europe, and our country is treated with great sympathy and respect.”

Read also: Government: Hungary will buy Russian oil in the future

Tighter cooperation between the two countries

Hungary remains committed to the Paks II. nuclear power plant expansion, with a contract to Rosatom to construct VVER-1200 nuclear reactors. Belarus already operates similar reactors, and the cooperation between the two countries in this field could further deepen.

“The new topic on the table is cooperation in the nuclear energy sector. Not only has a memorandum been signed, but there is also an agreement to create an expert group. It is important to note that our Hungarian partners are highly valuable and greatly appreciate the experience that Belarus has today with our nuclear power plant” – Ulakhovich said in Budapest.

Read also: Orbán cabinet considering extending ban on Ukraine farm products if Brussels fails to act

Hungarian opposition queries government on Paks expansion

Paks nuclear power plant

The opposition Párbeszéd party on Thursday said it has submitted a series of questions to the government in connection with the upgrade of Hungary’s nuclear power plant in Paks.

Addressing an online press conference, Benedek Jávor, an advisor to the party, noted that Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced last week that Hungary and Russia had agreed to modify the contract on the plant’s expansion.

Jávor said Párbeszéd’s questions aimed to clarify the changes and which contracts they applied to.

He said Párbeszéd wanted to know whether it was possible that Paks 2, the project company in charge of the upgrade, would take over contractor duties and the related financial and legal responsibilities.

The party also seeks information on whether the issue of the project’s increased costs, “for which Russia’s Rosatom is to blame”, would be settled if a new contractor was appointed, he said.

Another question Párbeszéd wants answered is whether a potential new financing contract would be submitted to parliament for approval, Jávor added.

Ukraine says Hungary is contributing to Russian war crimes with energy deals

Putin Russian president Viktor Orbán

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow and Russia’s energy exports are cheap, but that this contributes to Russia’s war crimes, so Ukrainian people are dying because of it.

Ukraine perseveres

Oleg Ustenko, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked to Politico. According to Ustenko “If you’ve seen the video where Russians cut the head off a Ukrainian soldier — the Hungarians are paying for the knife.”

The paper points out that Hungary and Russia have numerous energy relations. This led Hungary to prolong the war in Ukraine.

The situation is further exacerbated by a recent video showing the execution of a Ukrainian soldier.

“You have to be completely blind not to see what kinds of crimes you are sponsoring. Buying more gas from the Russians means you are giving them more capacity to escalate the war,” said Ustenko on the incident.

Read also:

Hungary perseveres

Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not responded to the allegations. Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó signed a number of energy agreements in Moscow. These will allow Russian gas imports to Hungary to increase.

Orbán is a populist prime minister with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Politico. He has also consistently opposed the imposition of sanctions against Russia.

Budapest receives 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year, and the new amendment will allow even more to reach the Hungarian capital.

The security of Hungary’s energy supply requires uninterrupted transportation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel,” Szijjártó said earlier at a press conference. He added “To meet these three conditions, Hungarian-Russian energy cooperation must be uninterrupted. It has nothing to do with political preferences.”

Read also:

The two countries cooperate closely not only on gas but also on nuclear energy. Szijjártó said those who oppose the Paks nuclear power plant project are against Hungary. The Hungarian foreign minister also sent a message to Brussels to approve the agreement, otherwise, the country’s long-term energy supply would be at risk.

However, Ustenko wants the EU to step in and put pressure on Hungary. Germany, Poland and Finland have cut their Russian gas supplies to zero and several other countries have cut back significantly as well while Hungary receives nearly 80 percent of its gas from Russia.

 

Hungarian opposition wants to stop Paks nuclear expansion

Paks nuclear power plant

The opposition Párbeszéd party on Wednesday called for the project to expand Paks nuclear power station to be abandoned.

Párbeszéd’s Benedek Jávor noted at an online press briefing that an amendment of earlier agreements on the project was announced after Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó’s visit to Moscow on Tuesday. While Szijjártó has not made the details public, based on interviews and press reports in recent days, the new construction project may involve Rosatom abandoning its role as the main contractor, he added.

The Paks 2 project in its current form “is clearly a failure” and the government “admitted this by reviewing the contract”, he said.

Jávor said a loan agreement was linked to a 2014 Russian-Hungarian nuclear cooperation deal, and parliament must approve any amendment of it.

Read also:

If the amendment involves changing the main contractor, then its effects could be “catastrophic”, he said. It would mean the government taking all of the project’s financial and legal liabilities from Rosatom and burdening Hungarian taxpayers with it, he added.

Consequently, the Russians, as suppliers, would not bear any responsibility for cost increase in the project, and the cost could grow from the original 12.5 billion euros to “unforeseeable heights”, he said.

Major changes around Paks II – what happens to Russian and French assistance?

Paks Nuclear Plant Hungary

Economist Gergely Jákli wrote about the future of the Paks II project in his company magazine. He talked about how the strict contractual frameworks hold back the advancement of the project.

The strict framework is holding them back

Recently, PM Orbán’s political director Balázs Orbán admitted that the contractual framework of the Paks II project is being reconsidered in the light of increasingly stringent Western sanctions. Reacting to this, Mr Jákli said that there is an increasing need for the new blocks as soon as possible. He said that the current daily electricity demand of around 6,000 MW could rise to around 10,000 MW per day by 2030. Thus, if Paks I and Paks II were to produce in parallel by then, the two plants would still meet 40-45 percent of the expected electricity demand per day.

He then spoke about the general contractor agreement with Roszatom, which promises the completed Paks II project with a construction cost of EUR 12.5 billion. Of this, EUR 10 billion would come from Russian loans.

“Rigorously driven piles give the appearance of stability, but they also tie your hands and make it harder to move the project forward. I believe that the contractual environment is also full of such pillars, which are rather obstacles and slowing factors,” Portfolio quotes Mr Jákli as saying.

These changes are likely to affect only the status of the Russian prime contractor, in line with Portfolio’s background information, and not the complete replacement of Russia’s Rosatom in the project. Since, according to Mr Jákli, “the project is in our hands”, the indications are that Paks II Zrt. could be the main contractor, and French Framatome could really only get a bigger role in the management system.

Rosatom will still be the main partner

What Jákli said also confirms that Paks II Zrt. is still counting on Rosatom to build the primary circuit. Thus, the scheme would continue to build on the internationally well-established division of labour, with Western European companies joining the Russian primary circuit in various areas, Portfolio writes.

“We are committed to this, we plan to continue to implement the project with Roszatom, and our suppliers – both Framatome and Siemens – are also committed to the project,” Mr Jákli concluded.

Read also:

The French coming to finish Paks nuclear power plant extension instead of the Russians?

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant

The opposition Párbeszéd party on Thursday said it has submitted a series of questions to the government in connection with the upgrade of Hungary’s nuclear power plant in Paks.

Benedek Jávor, an advisor to the party, told an online press conference that the public had a right to know what the government was planning that had recently “seriously endangered the security of Hungary’s energy supply”. Jávor said Párbeszéd wanted to know whether the government had plans to replace the nuclear fuel for the Paks plant with fuel supplied by US-based Westinghouse or another manufacturer, MTI wrote.

The party also seeks information on whether the government had contacted Westinghouse or any other supplier, and if any sort of agreement had been reached on the matter, he said. Another quesiton Párbeszéd wants answered is whether the government discussed involving a broader circle of French companies in the upgrade project, and was this discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at their most recent meeting, Jávor said.

Read also:

Hungarian opposition proposes measures to tackle energy shortage

Energy nuclear

The opposition Párbeszéd party is proposing a series of measures to save Hungary from “serious energy shortages in the next 10 years,” Benedek Jávor, an advisor to the party, said on Tuesday.

Jávor said the Paks nuclear plant upgrade project should be terminated, “with regard to the war-related vis major and the Russian partner’s non-compliance”. “Hungary must become independent of Russian gas and nuclear fuel,” he said.

Second, the government should meet the European Commission’s preconditions “in full” to ensure Hungary’s access to EU funding, he told an online press briefing, adding that the funds could cover an upgrade of the country’s electric grid and increase its capacity to handle inputs of 6,000 MW of solar and 3,500 MW of wind energy. Párbeszéd would also lift restrictions on the generation of this kind of energy, he said.

Read also:

Párbeszéd would also spend an annual 300 billion forints (EUR 796m) to help up to 150,000 families insulate their homes, Jávor said.

Jávor strongly advised against the “mass construction” of battery plants, and suggested that the country’s competitiveness could be improved through training and support for research and development.

Is Hungary ending cooperation with Russian Rosatom? Here is the answer

rosatom hungary russia szijjártó

The claim that Hungary’s government is withdrawing from cooperation with Russia’s Rosatom on the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant “is a lie”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday, emphasising that the increased role of France’s Framatome in the project concerned only the delivery of the control technology required for the new reactor blocks.

Framatome’s role has had to be increased because its German consortium partner, Siemens Energy, has not yet received an export permit “for political reasons”, Szijjártó told a press conference during a break in a meeting of European Union energy affairs ministers in Brussels, according to a ministry statement.

Szijjártó said nuclear energy was subjected to discrimination, arguing that the expansion of Hungary’s Paks plant was “constantly facing obstacles” and “they are trying to impose sanctions on nuclear projects, which we regularly block”. He said Germany’s government was still blocking Siemens Energy’s participation in the Paks upgrade and had yet to approve its delivery of the control technology for the project in line with its contract.

Szijjártó slammed the “constant wave of fake news in the international liberal media”, calling reports that the Hungarian government was withdrawing from cooperation with Rosatom “an outright lie”. “We are committed to fulfilling the contract signed nine years ago with Rosatom,” the minister said. “We are committed to the construction of Paks 2 with Rosatom. We have no reason to withdraw from this cooperation.”

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said the EU’s pro-nuclear alliance comprising 12 member states led by France held a meeting earlier in the day. Currently seven countries are planning to build or are already building nuclear plants, Szijjártó said, adding this would lead to a “major nuclear rebirth” in Europe over the coming years in the interest of defending against price fluctuations.

The meeting’s participants agreed to work together closely to combat discrimination against nuclear energy. The group therefore calls for lending conditions to be changed so that they could also be used fairly for nuclear energy-related investments, Szijjártó said.

Legal and licensing procedures should also be reviewed and based on the decades of experience Europe has gained in the use of nuclear energy, he said. The alliance also proposes the development of joint training programmes in the interest of ensuring that there are enough professionals and capacity, he added.

Read also:

Financial Times: The French will put an end to the Putin-Orbán nuclear friendship? – UPDATED

Orbán Macron France

Of course, PM Viktor Orbán or Russian President Putin never said they were friends. But, among others, they met each year before the war in Ukraine, and Russians got the Paks nuclear power plant extension project for a lot of money. Furthermore, the Hungarian government keeps talking about the importance of peace, which momentarily means that the Ukrainians should lay down their weapons and accept the Russian invasion. Will the French terminate the good relationship of the two leaders? UPDATE: Read Russian Rosatom’s reaction in the issue below.

Hungary-Russia: a special relationship

PM Orbán and his government condemned the Russian invasion in Ukraine but always highlighted the rightful security claims of Russia and President Putin. They voted for all of the EU sanctions but were able to take off some Russian businessmen and clerics from the EU’s sanctions lists. The Western allies keep talking about the importance of arms deliveries to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Orbán said Hungary would never transport weapons for Kyiv because Budapest does not want to escalate the conflict.

Voices about seceding from the Russian energy deliveries are the strongest in the West, but Hungary keeps buying Russian oil and gas even though the purchase price is very high. However, it seems there are some cracks on the unique Hungarian-Russian relationship.

According to the Financial Times, Hungary started negotiations with France. The aim is to replace the Russians with the French regarding the Paks nuclear power plant extension project, the British paper wrote.

Orbán will kick out the Russians for the French?

Viktor Orbán met Emmanuel Macron last week in Paris, and they discussed a nuclear cooperation and the state of the extension project. High ranking government officials told FT that the Hungarian government started to rethink the project, which costs EUR 12 billion, financed from a Russian loan. Furthermore, the partners are Russia and the country’s Rosatom, 24.hu wrote.

Here are some photos about Orbán’s visit in Paris where he met with incumbent President Marcon and President Sarkozy. In the post, he wrote that Huns are in Paris:

A subcontractor of the Russian nuclear giant in Hungary is the French reactor manufacturing company, Framatome, which will deliver the new plant’s control system in cooperation with the German Siemens. Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, announced that the cabinet would like to increase the role of the French company in the project.

Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, said there was an ongoing debate concerning the reimagination of the Paks extension project because the situation became more complicated after the war started. Interestingly, Hungary and France vetoed together the EU’s direct sanctions against the Rosatom. But Financial Times says the pressure is growing in that respect.

The political director added that changing the original plans would push the project back by years. However, experts believe the longer the war and the sanctions last, the more probable the Russian participation’s end becomes. However, it is not clear yet whether that means a new partner or a new plant.

A French official highlighted both sides are open for a closer cooperation. But nobody knows how that intention would materialise.

UPDATE: Russian Rosatom reacted (03.26.)

Lóránt Kóti, the communications leader of the Rosatom in Hungary, sent a statement on the issue to Portfólió. He wrote that the Russian company is ready to work on the project and hopes their cooperation with the Hungarian partners can continue.

Paks Nuclear Plant Hungary
Read alsoWhat’s going on? Production at Paks nuclear plant down half

What’s going on? Production at Paks nuclear plant down half

Paks Nuclear Plant Hungary

Production at the Paks nuclear power plant fell by half of its rated output on Monday. This happened after a technical fault and a load on the power control system further reduced output due to a major overhaul of unit 2 that lasted nearly a month. The nuclear power plant was producing little more than half steam Tuesday morning.

Production at the Paks nuclear power plant, which has a total electrical capacity of 2026.6 MW, fell below 900 megawatts (MW) for several hours on Monday at 11 AM. It was after the plant’s Unit 1 was loaded by 50 MW as a result of the plant’s participation in the so-called tertiary system regulation, Portfolio reports.

The reduction in production due to system control ended before 4 PM that afternoon. Unit 1 has since been operating at nominal capacity again. However, a few minutes after 6 AM on the same day, production of unit 3 stopped completely due to a safeguard operation. That is the reason for the decline in the power plant’s production.

Car Factory Economy Industrial
Read alsoAnother gigantic car factory to bring a huge investment to Hungary

Foreign minister: increasing French participation in Paks nuclear power plant 2

france flamanville nuclear energy plant

Hungary is in talks on increasing the role of France’s Framatome in the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant with a view to preventing the German government from being able to block the delivery of control technology required for the project, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said in Flamanville on Monday.

The expansion of the Paks plant cannot succeed without cooperation with France, given that the control system for the new reactor blocks is being supplied by a French-German consortium, Péter Szijjártó said after inspecting Framatome’s nuclear plant being built in Flamanville, according to a ministry statement.

Szijjártó said it was “unfair” that the German government continued to block delivery of the system to Hungary, arguing that decisions concerning the energy mix fell under national competences and that energy security was a matter of sovereignty.

The government is therefore in talks on further increasing the role of France’s Framatome in the project so that Berlin cannot continue to block the delivery of control technology, Szijjártó said.

Hungary is expanding nuclear cooperation with France with a view to ensuring that the Paks plant uses western European control technology, he said.

Paks nuclear power plant
Read alsoHungary might operate small nuclear reactor with American technology

Meanwhile, the minister said the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed in response to the conflict had resulted in a global energy supply crisis, while the world is under increasing pressure to act on climate change.

The world will need safe, cheap and long-term energy supplies that also take into consideration environmental protection aspects, he said, adding that these goals could only be met by nuclear energy.

Hungary is a European leader in the area of nuclear energy and a member of the nuclear coalition that is “clearly led by France, which pursues a rational energy policy”, Szijjártó said.

He welcomed the cooperation between France and Hungary which he said would have “practical impacts”.

Hungarians support nuclear energy

Paks nuclear power plant third nuclear power plant

The majority of Hungarians, 66 percent, support the use of nuclear energy as a way to provide safe and uninterrupted energy for households, up from 53 percent in 2020, according to a survey conducted by Társadalomkutató published in the daily Magyar Nemzet on Tuesday.

Comparing the results of the 2023 survey to one conducted in 2020, Társadalomkutató said Hungarians’ original support for nuclear energy strengthened over time, probably due to the war in Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis. In 2020, 53 percent of respondents supported increasing the role of nuclear plants in Hungary’s energy mix, while that ratio was 62 percent in 2023, the pollster said.

Some 40 percent of respondents see nuclear energy as key in safe energy supplies in 20-50 years, Társadalomkutató said. Regarding their effect on the environment, 43 percent of respondents said “weather-dependent sustainable energy” was the least damaging, while 23 percent named nuclear energy as the cleanest.

At the same time, 70 percent (up from 61 percent in 2020) said the Paks nuclear plant produced the cheapest energy in the country, while 59 percent (up from 50 percent) said nuclear plants were generally the cheapest energy producers.

In 2020, 64 percent were aware that there was a nuclear plant operating in Hungary. That number went up to 70 percent by 2023, Társadalomkutató said. Fully 62 percent also supports the construction of new blocks, up from 51 percent in 2020, it said. Fully 57 percent of respondents agreed that they should be built “using cutting-edge Russian technology,” against 53 percent in 2020, it said.

Paks nuclear power plant
Read also Here is when Russia starts building Hungary’s new nuclear power plant

Hungary might operate small nuclear reactor with American technology

Paks nuclear power plant
  • First signs that in the future Hungary could operate nuclear reactors with American technology emerged. The small modular reactors could supplement the nuclear plant at Paks.

The Hungarian energy minister, Csaba Lantos mentioned for the first time that Hungary could purchase small modular nuclear reactors, portfolio.hu reports. Potential new reactors based on American technology do not endanger the completion of Paks II.

In his interview with XXI. Század Intézet, Csaba Lantos made it clear that nuclear power plants are playing a leading role in the energy supply of Hungary. “The government wants to extend the operating life of Paks I, for which it will carry out the necessary studies, and also we also want to build Paks II” – he said.

Peeking at the neighbours

Csaba Lantos also pointed out that the share of electricity could rise from 20 percent to 45 percent in Hungarian energy consumption charts. The combined share of the 2000 MW Paks I and 2400 MW Paks II could be around 50 percent after the completion of the new reactors.

Paks nuclear power plant
Read alsoHungary might operate small nuclear reactor with American technology

However, that might not be enough to sustainably provide energy to Hungary, therefore the government must think about building a 3rd reactor. The minister believes that they must pay attention to the developments in Romania.

“We’re also looking at this [building a 3rd nuclear plan]. There’s a new wave of small modular reactors, we know of 15 different designs, and quite surprising countries, like Argentina, are building them.”

“Our neighbour Romania will be the first in Europe to build such a small modular reactor with American technology, so this is an issue that we must deal with very seriously and we are tackling it. I see this as an important issue for the foreseeable future.”

Orbán Putin visit Russian cyber attacks
Read alsoHungary tries to save Russian businessmen from the new EU sanctions

As uncertainties around Paks II. do not appear to be fading due to Russia’s war with Ukraine, the small modular reactors could provide a stop-gap solution.

The EU is currently planning its 10th sanctions package against Russia, and Hungary wants to get exemptions regarding Russian nuclear energy activity. “Any sanctions on nuclear energy or Rosatom would harm Hungary’s fundamental national interests” – Reuters quoted Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó regarding the highly delayed project.