Paks Nuclear Power Plant Expansion Project Right on Track

The Paks investment (in central Hungary) is underway, with 900 people already working on site, and this number is steadily increasing. The production of long lead items is also continuing, hence everything is in place for the two new units to start production by the beginning of the next decade, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Istanbul.

The politician noted that before his meeting with Alexey Likhachev, Director General of the Russian nuclear power company Rosatom (prime contractor), they discussed the status of the Paks expansion and the most important tasks for the next period.

He welcomed the fact that the Paks project is “humming along”, noting that there are now 900 people working on the site and that this number is growing.

At peak times, the number of people working on site will be somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000,”

the minister emphasized. “If you look at who is working there, you will see that besides the Russian prime contractor, Western European, American and Hungarian companies are working together on the project in a very harmonious way,” he added. He described this as a promising development in the current geopolitical context.

The Hungarian politician then said that work on soil stabilization, a key element for the safety of the construction site, was in full swing, with 76,000 piles planned and more than 20,000 already completed. The Minister stressed that the soil consolidation under the future nuclear site was already 82% complete, creating the conditions for the start of full excavation tests down to a depth of 23 meters.

This is a point in the construction of a nuclear power plant that is always seen as a key milestone,”

he pointed out.

Mr Szijjártó also underlined that, in addition to the on-site work, the production of long lead equipment is also underway. One of these is the reactor vessel itself, which will take three years to forge and has been underway for months outside Saint Petersburg, while the other is the melt trap, which has recently been completed. The latter is a huge 750-ton piece of equipment that is already on a ship and is now on its way across the Romanian section of the Danube to Hungary. “We expect its arrival in a week or two,” the minister added.

Péter Szijjártó stressed that the security of the investment is guaranteed by the fact that the government has succeeded in obtaining full exemption from any EU sanctions for the Paks project. “The Paks project is not subject to any sanctions, therefore the construction, technical and financial implementation can continue unhindered in the coming period,” he emphasized.

The politician also stressed that the investment is critical for Hungary in three respects:

• Firstly, it will guarantee the long-term energy security of Hungary, as the new units will be able to cover about 70% of the country’s total electricity demand.
• Secondly, the project is critical to safeguarding the achievements of the cuts in electricity prices, as the only way to produce large amounts of electricity reliably and cheaply today is through nuclear power.
• Thirdly, nuclear energy is environmentally friendly, as demonstrated by the fact that the Paks expansion will reduce Hungary’s natural gas consumption by 3 billion cubic meters per year and its annual carbon dioxide emissions by 17 million tons.

The success of the Paks project is therefore crucial for protecting the environment, safeguarding the results of the cuts in electricity prices and the long-term, independent security of supply of Hungary.

Via MTI, Featured image via Facebook/Paks II. Atomerőmű Zrt.