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Russia Starts Building Hungary’s Nuclear Reactors

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Hungary

BUDAPEST/PAKS (Worthy News) – A unit of Russia’s nuclear power company Rosatom has begun building new reactors for Hungary’s only nuclear power plant in defiance of European Union criticism.

Hungary’s EU partners have been reluctant to continue any Russian energy project due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 400 kilometers (248 kilometers) away from the plant in Paks.

Nuclear power turned the small, sleepy, riverside town into one of the richest in provincial Hungary, an hour’s drive south of Budapest, where thousands find work in the nuclear industry.

Atomstroyexport, part of Rosatom, had started the foundations and “the housing of the VVER-1200 reactors,” the firm said in comments monitored by Worthy News.

In 2014, Prime Minster Viktor Orbán signed a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to build two new 1,200 MW reactors besides the old ones.

Now, nearly a decade later, the delayed construction started after Hungarian and Russian representatives signed on August 18 an amendment to the contract, officials said.

Russia will finance the plant with a 10 billion euro ($10.9 billion) loan, which Hungarian consumers should pay back in their electricity bills starting in 2026 when the plant was due to come into service.

YEARS OF DELAYS

However, years of delays with permits meant that ground-clearing work at the site only began last August.

The Paks 1 nuclear power station, on the shore of the Danube and an hour’s drive south of Budapest, was built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and its four reactors still supply around half of Hungary’s electricity needs.

Their working life will end in the 2030s, and Hungary wants the Russian-backed Paks 2 project to fill in the gaps. The EU has criticized Hungary for its cozy relationship with Russia, but Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says the ties are necessary to ensure his nation’s energy security.

In contrast, Finland canceled a similar, Russian-built plant on the Hanhikivi peninsula in mid-construction in May, citing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yet that seemed of little concern for Hungary’s government on Wednesday, with officials saying some “1 million cubic meters of earth must be excavated and removed in the area of block 6.” Russia’s Rosatom representatives said, “This work is scheduled to be completed by the end of the autumn.”

It added that some 10,000 additional workers will be involved in the new construction phase.

Bright new blocks of flats are nearly finished for the Russian engineers to be employed here. But, for now, the town is holding its breath amid signs that Ukraine’s opposition and Western sanctions may complicate the project.

EU PRESSURE

The plant is not simply a Russian one as, under EU pressure, it is using Russian hardware and a control system to be built by the Siemens-led, French-German consortium Framatome.

The turbines were supposed to be built by GE Hungary, a subsidiary of U.S. firm General Electric.

Without their support, the project seemed doomed, and the future of employees and Hungarian energy consumers was uncertain.

Questions have also been raised about how Russia will supply nuclear fuel and how Hungary will send highly radioactive used fuel elements back to Russia. Neighbor Ukraine is unlikely to allow its territory to be used for these transfers.

Yet for now, Paks’ streets are crowded with bars, restaurants, hairdressers and clothes shops.

The economy here is supported by 2,700 people working at Paks 1 and another 7,000 dependent on the plant as sub-contractors. If it’s up to them, the war in Ukraine will not disturb Hungary’s nuclear energy plans.