Hungary has received European Commission approval to renew contracts for new reactors at its Paks II nuclear power plant. Hungarian Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said the original agreements for the reactors were rendered „somewhat obsolete” due to changes in the legal, technical and physical environment but the €12.5bn project, awarded in 2014 to Russia’s Rosatom, is not fundamentally affected by EU sanctions. Hungarian officials did discuss changing the contract to include a project management company to speed it up due to long delays.
Following talks in Moscow, Szijjarto and Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev have agreed on amendments to the construction and financing agreement and
Hungary has said it intends to press ahead with its plans for a new Russian-built nuclear power plant at Paks II, despite the Russian war with Ukraine and the European Union (EU) imposition of sanctions against Russia – which don’t appear to affect Russian provision of nuclear energy infrastructure.
The existing four units at Paks are VVER-440 reactors that started up between 1982 and 1987 and produce about half of Hungary’s electricity. Hungary’s Energy Minister Csaba Lantos said the Paks II plant was now expected to be completed in 2032. In December, the Hungarian Parliament approved a proposal to further extend their lifespan, which means preparations can begin on operating the nuclear power plant into the 2050s.
