St. Petersburg starts construction for Hungary's Paks nuclear expansion

In St. Petersburg, the construction of a reactor tank for new blocks of the nuclear power plant in Paks has begun, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Friday.

The politician, who regularly reports on the progress of the nuclear power plant expansion in Central Hungary, described it as a "milestone". According to Szijjarto, the work is progressing as planned, and the new blocks are expected to be connected to the grid at the beginning of the next decade.

Budapest believes that the new capacities of the Paks power plant will increase the country's energy independence, which, having no access to the sea, must import energy resources, mainly from Russia.

Szijjarto has met with the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, many times after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Orban government openly states that it will block any attempts by the EU to impose sanctions on the nuclear sector.

Western companies are also involved in the project, including the French Framatome and German Siemens. Gergely Jakli, the head of Paks II company responsible for the power plant's expansion, said in an interview for the Portfolio website that he does not rule out Chinese involvement in the future.

The expansion of the nuclear power plant in Paks is one of the key energy projects of Viktor Orban's government. The construction of two new blocks, each with a capacity of about 1,400 MW, was entrusted to Rosatom at the beginning of 2014. The entire investment is estimated at about £10.3 billion, with 80% of the costs covered by a Russian loan.

The government in Budapest wants to base its energy mix on cheap nuclear energy, therefore considers the expansion of Paks a key project. The construction of two new blocks, each with a capacity of about 1,400 MW, was assigned to the Russian state corporation in early 2014.