All obstacles to the implementation of the Paks II project have been removed thanks to the preparation and licensing process of recent years, and all conditions are in place for the construction to proceed at the right pace, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev announced at a press conference at the Paks II nuclear power plant site after a visit.
Alexey Likhachev noted that the Paks II nuclear power plant must be built in order to ensure Hungary’s energy security and sovereignty. He added that Rosatom would fulfill all its obligations in the implementation of the Paks project.
The CEO stressed that the best practices and safe technology used so far will be applied to the Paks project, noting that this will be the first nuclear power plant built by the company in the European Union.
He emphasized that the project was being accelerated, with 140 Hungarian suppliers currently working on the site, and that the number of workers would increase as construction progressed, with an estimated 2,000 people expected to be working on the Paks project next year.
At the press conference, Levente Magyar, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that in the early 2020s, the country faced several challenges due to the geopolitical situation, hindering the progress of the project. The Hungarian-Russian cooperation has overcome this difficult period and the project is progressing successfully, with the first concrete pouring taking place in a year’s time, followed by the construction of the structures, he added.
The state secretary pointed out that the project is irreversible and will be built despite all doubts and efforts to the contrary.
In response to a question, Magyar said he was encouraged that the project could be completed on schedule and that a significant part of Hungary’s energy could be produced here.
The production of power plant equipment for the Paks II project is a priority, and every effort is being made to ensure that it is completed on time and achieves the 40% Hungarian added value.
Aleksandr Tupitsin, the construction director of the project, showed, among other things, that the reinforcing steel structures assembly plant and the concrete mixing plant are ready and masonry work is underway. He added that this is a major international project, with around 300 people working on the site on a continuous basis through subcontractors, and a significant proportion of them are Hungarian workers.
In May, the European Commission approved amendments to the contracts for the expansion of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, allowing the project to be accelerated. Since then, slurry wall construction work on the Paks II nuclear power plant project has begun, as did excavation work under Unit 6.
Some fake news also surfaced in connection with the construction, thanks to the international liberal press. The most recent was that Hungary would stop cooperating with Russia’s Rosatom on a development project. The rumors were quickly dispelled by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, saying that “We are committed to the implementation of the agreement signed with Rosatom nine years ago.” (At the end of March 2014, Hungary and the Russian Federation signed a EUR 10 billion loan agreement to finance the construction of the two new Paks units.)
