The Paks nuclear power plant provides a third of Hungary's energy production, Péter Szijjártó says.Continue reading
The Paks nuclear power plant will have enough nuclear fuel for safe operation for many more months after another shipment arrived on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced on his Facebook page.
Péter Szijjártó said that in the current energy crisis, it has become more important which country can produce the bulk of the electricity it uses. In Hungary, the Paks nuclear power plant provides half of the electricity generated and a third of the electricity consumed, he added.
The safe and predictable operation of the plant is therefore crucial for our energy security. This requires nuclear fuel, which we import from Russia,
he said.
The Minister added that this time the shipment came on a completely new route. As rail transport through Ukraine and air transport across northern Central Europe had become impossible, a new solution had to be found.
“Thanks to the fair attitude of our Bulgarian and Romanian partners,” a hybrid solution was found: the fuel was taken by ship to Bulgaria, loaded onto a train, then transported to Hungary by rail via Romania and unloaded at the Paks nuclear power plant on Thursday, Szijjártó said.
Russian energy is extremely important for Hungary, as both the Foreign Minister, the Prime Minister, and other government officials have repeatedly stressed. The need for energy, including nuclear energy, is not an ideological but a physical issue for Hungary.
It is precisely for this reason that the Hungarian government does not support the existing EU energy sanctions, or the planned ones. There has also been talk of extending the sanctions to nuclear energy, which would have serious consequences for Hungary, given the above facts, including the importance of the Paks nuclear power plant and its supply of Russian fuel. However, as Szijjártó put it recently, “so far, we have managed to prevent Brussels from imposing sanctions on our nuclear developments, and we will continue to do so in the future.”
Featured photo via website of MVM Paksi Atomerőmű