Minister Péter Szijjártó held a press conference on the progression of the project.Continue reading
Predictability and stability are extremely important for the government and the local people during the Paks (central Hungary) expansion, hence continuing the cooperation with the current city administration in the future would be of great help, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday.
The Foreign Minister highlighted at a public forum that today, even in the most important issues within the European Union, there is an ideological, politicized debate, including on energy supply, although rational, physical aspects should ultimately dominate in this area.
“Since press conferences, ideologies, and political statements can neither heat nor cool (..),
the ideological debates on energy issues are endangering the security of energy supply of European countries, including Hungary,”
he warned.
He added that Hungary has neither oil nor gas fields, nor a coastline, and therefore, the only way to produce large quantities of energy cheaply, reliably, safely, and sustainably is through nuclear power plants. In this context, the politician explained that the reactors have been an integral part of Paks for almost 50 years and locals know that they operate well and safely.
On the expansion of the power plant, Péter Szijjártó said that a favorable agreement had been concluded with the Russian side, both from a technological and a financing point of view, and that work was progressing well, with important milestones having been reached recently.
The new units could start production at the beginning of the next decade, thus enabling Hungary to become independent of the vicissitudes of international energy markets,
he added.
In parallel, Paks is implementing infrastructure and community developments. Many new jobs will be created, including through road construction, renovation, rail improvements and community investments, he noted.
“For us, predictability and stability from the local people is very important in the construction of a nuclear power plant. Thus if we could continue to work with the same mayor, the same coalition of city leaders, it would help a lot,” the Minister stressed.
Mr. Szijjártó also noted that the question of how to finally “force the imposition of sanctions on the Russian nuclear industry down the throats of Hungarians and Central Europeans” continues to be raised in Europe on a weekly basis. “This would be a measure that would fundamentally damage our national security and national economic interests. (…) We have made it clear that if sanctions on nuclear cooperation with Russia were on the table, we would veto them immediately,” he underlined. He also added that pressure on this issue had eased somewhat in Brussels since the Hungarian government highlighted that Russia had become the number one supplier of uranium to the United States last year.
The Foreign Minister referred to the international nature of the Paks expansion, and emphasized that the Russian prime contractor, Rosatom, is joined by American, German, French, Swiss, and Austrian companies. He mentioned that there had been no disruption in the supply of nuclear fuel so far, hence there was no change of supplier on the agenda.
Via MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Paks II. Atomerőmű Zrt.