Since nuclear energy is all the rage nowadays I’ve thought I wrote a summary post on status of Hungary’s planned expansion of the country’s sole nuclear power plant (located next to town called Paks, south of Budapest on the shore of Danube.) in light of recent developments. The original plant, built in the 80s provides 2000MW of steady power to the country, however its reactors license will expire in the 2030s (though there talks of another extension). As such in 2009 the parliament near-unanimously voted to expand the plant. Initially the plan was to announce a tender but then in 2014 the conservative governement under PM Orbán decided to sign a contract with Russia’s Rosatom to have them build two VVER-1200 units at a fixed price of €12 billion. The original finish date was set at 2025 and 2026, but paperwork slugged on slow, reportedly because Russians had difficultues adapting to “EU and Hungarian norms”. The EU gave greenlight in 2016 though with some concerns. Geological investigation began in 2017, auxiliary building construction, workforce recruitment etc in 2018. Preliminary excavation of the foundation begun in 2021. Currently construction is expected to begin later this year, with official target dates of 2029 and 2030, so already several years later despite no construction work being done yet, and there’s talks Russia may want to raise the bill.
The project has become controversial not strictly due being a nuclear plant (as some naysayers may suspect at glance), but due to the nature of the contract and surrounding events – which is entirely classified thus little is publicly known. However, various leaks and press releases have put together the following picture. Note, nearly all my sources below will come from atlatszo.hu, a Hungarian investigative news site, since they generally have English versions of the article, though I can link various other Hungarian if anyone wants me to.
The most glaring issue is the fact researchers identified a faultine directly under the planned new units. To summarize, the official geological report (it itself originally classified despite being funded from public money thus should have been readily avalible) is that this faultline is “not capable” of producing potentially dangerous earthquakes and is thus not a concern, which finding has been heavily debated by other independent researchers, Hungarian and foreign:
Work goes on however. In 2020 Rosatom submitted the plant’s permit to the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, a document several hundred thousand pages long. The IAEA also chipped in to the permit review process. This is the part the article in OP goes on about, namely that apparently, the permit was in general ofshoddy quality, many of it’s calculations could not be re-checked (“both the briefing by the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority as well as a recent report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency signaled several issues”). As thus it was sent back to the Russians for review in late 2021. The significance of this is highlighted by the fact at the same time Hungary’s foreign minister made a trip to Moscow to discuss details of the plant expansion. All of this, as the article explains in detail has a background of heavy political infighting – between the minister of technology (overseeing the Atomic Energy Authority) and the minister of Paks 2 project (ex-mayor of Paks, and yes they made a separate title for the project), as for the latter the rejection of the initial permit has been likely a significant loss of face. A curious addenda – the original person responsible for the project, the country’s leading nuclear scientist was dismissed from this post in 2019, and it was revealed last year he was also [target of the Pegasus spyware](https://hungarianspectrum.org/2021/07/23/government-officials-are-not-immune-to-a-friendly-visit-from-pegasus/). Perhaps he became non grata due to his concerns? Who knows. The min. of tech is said to be a heavyweight negotiatior who mercilessly sees through his responsibilites and is not concerned with fallout, but being an engineer himself draws a red line with the plant.
But the, hmm, interesting tidbits don’t stop here. Without making this post too long, I’ll just drop titles with links:
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Since nuclear energy is all the rage nowadays I’ve thought I wrote a summary post on status of Hungary’s planned expansion of the country’s sole nuclear power plant (located next to town called Paks, south of Budapest on the shore of Danube.) in light of recent developments. The original plant, built in the 80s provides 2000MW of steady power to the country, however its reactors license will expire in the 2030s (though there talks of another extension). As such in 2009 the parliament near-unanimously voted to expand the plant. Initially the plan was to announce a tender but then in 2014 the conservative governement under PM Orbán decided to sign a contract with Russia’s Rosatom to have them build two VVER-1200 units at a fixed price of €12 billion. The original finish date was set at 2025 and 2026, but paperwork slugged on slow, reportedly because Russians had difficultues adapting to “EU and Hungarian norms”. The EU gave greenlight in 2016 though with some concerns. Geological investigation began in 2017, auxiliary building construction, workforce recruitment etc in 2018. Preliminary excavation of the foundation begun in 2021. Currently construction is expected to begin later this year, with official target dates of 2029 and 2030, so already several years later despite no construction work being done yet, and there’s talks Russia may want to raise the bill.
The project has become controversial not strictly due being a nuclear plant (as some naysayers may suspect at glance), but due to the nature of the contract and surrounding events – which is entirely classified thus little is publicly known. However, various leaks and press releases have put together the following picture. Note, nearly all my sources below will come from atlatszo.hu, a Hungarian investigative news site, since they generally have English versions of the article, though I can link various other Hungarian if anyone wants me to.
The most glaring issue is the fact researchers identified a faultine directly under the planned new units. To summarize, the official geological report (it itself originally classified despite being funded from public money thus should have been readily avalible) is that this faultline is “not capable” of producing potentially dangerous earthquakes and is thus not a concern, which finding has been heavily debated by other independent researchers, Hungarian and foreign:
[“There is a real hazard of an earthquake at Paks” – Austrian geologist warns Hungary](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2021/07/15/there-is-a-real-hazard-of-an-earthquake-at-paks-austrian-geologist-warns-hungary/)
[According to a new study, geological research on Paks-II NPP site underestimates earthquake risk](
https://english.atlatszo.hu/2021/04/09/according-to-a-new-study-geological-research-on-paks-ii-npp-site-underestimates-earthquake-risk/)
[Paks II. NPP site should be moved because it sits right at tectonic fault line, says expert](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2017/08/01/paks-ii-npp-site-should-be-moved-because-it-sits-right-at-tectoinc-fault-line-says-expert/)
Work goes on however. In 2020 Rosatom submitted the plant’s permit to the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, a document several hundred thousand pages long. The IAEA also chipped in to the permit review process. This is the part the article in OP goes on about, namely that apparently, the permit was in general ofshoddy quality, many of it’s calculations could not be re-checked (“both the briefing by the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority as well as a recent report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency signaled several issues”). As thus it was sent back to the Russians for review in late 2021. The significance of this is highlighted by the fact at the same time Hungary’s foreign minister made a trip to Moscow to discuss details of the plant expansion. All of this, as the article explains in detail has a background of heavy political infighting – between the minister of technology (overseeing the Atomic Energy Authority) and the minister of Paks 2 project (ex-mayor of Paks, and yes they made a separate title for the project), as for the latter the rejection of the initial permit has been likely a significant loss of face. A curious addenda – the original person responsible for the project, the country’s leading nuclear scientist was dismissed from this post in 2019, and it was revealed last year he was also [target of the Pegasus spyware](https://hungarianspectrum.org/2021/07/23/government-officials-are-not-immune-to-a-friendly-visit-from-pegasus/). Perhaps he became non grata due to his concerns? Who knows. The min. of tech is said to be a heavyweight negotiatior who mercilessly sees through his responsibilites and is not concerned with fallout, but being an engineer himself draws a red line with the plant.
But the, hmm, interesting tidbits don’t stop here. Without making this post too long, I’ll just drop titles with links:
[Security analyses of the Paks nuclear power plant’s expansion kept secret](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2021/01/15/security-analyses-of-the-paks-nuclear-power-plants-expansion-kept-secret/)
just your everyday corruption:
[Private company contracted for demolition work at the Paks NPP without tendering, way above market price](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2020/03/09/private-company-contracted-for-demolition-work-at-the-paks-npp-without-tendering-way-above-market-price/)
[Hungarian government classified whether Russia gets compensation if Paks II nuclear plant expansion is called off](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2018/02/07/hungarian-government-classified-whether-russia-gets-compensation-if-paks-ii-nuclear-plant-expansion-is-called-off/)
[Water temperature near Paks nuclear plant was above 30 °C, dangerous for life in the river Danube](https://english.atlatszo.hu/2018/09/01/water-temperature-near-paks-nuclear-plant-was-above-30-c-dangerous-for-life-in-the-river-danube/)
– as the new units will also use Danube’s water, there’s a big open question how will the river and plant cope with high water temperatures during summer drought.