Construction of Paks-2 Nuclear Power Plant Begins, Announced by Orban’s Office

Budapest, July 6 – Gergely Goyash, Head of Administration of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said that the start of construction of the fifth and sixth units of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in Hungary is expected in the spring and summer of 2024.

“Next spring – next summer, that’s the real time,” Goesch said at a government briefing, in response to a question from Hungarian media about when the first concrete pours for the new units at the Pax nuclear power plant are expected.

On Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sjärto said that the construction of a sealing curtain has started at the construction site, and the sixth block is expected to be excavated in August. State corporation Rosatom explained that this is the work of the first stage of building new power units.

Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, Pács, is located 100 km from Budapest and five from the city of Pác. The Pax Nuclear Power Plant now generates nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, and this share is expected to double with the planned commissioning of two new Pax units. For Hungary, nuclear energy is a means of ensuring its energy security, as the leadership of this country has repeatedly emphasized.

At the end of 2014, Russia and Hungary signed documents on the construction at Paks NPP of two new power units No. 5 and No. 6 with reactor plants according to the advanced Russian project VVER-1200, which meets the latest standards of reliability and safety. It was reported that Russia will give Hungary a state loan of up to 10 billion euros for the Paks-2 project, and the total cost of work will be 12.5 billion euros. A license to build the power units themselves has already been issued.