MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. The implementation of the Paks 2 NPP project will ensure Hungary’s energy security for years to come, CEO of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said on Friday.

"I think that the importance of this decision, which was made and is now implemented by the Hungarian side, is that it ensures energy security, including in the next century. This is the scale of this project, both in terms of its volume and terms," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

The Paks NPP was built with Soviet technologies in the 1980s about 100 kilometers south of Budapest on the banks of the Danube and uses Russian nuclear fuel. The four VVER-440 reactors of the Paks NPP provide half of all generated and one third of consumed electricity in Hungary. Currently, preparations are underway for the construction of two new power units, Paks 2, designed by Rosatom. Moscow has reiterated its readiness to finance this project, which is estimated at 12.5 billion euro and which was originally supposed to be funded from a Russian loan to 80% The Hungarian government expects that after two new VVER-1200 nuclear reactors are commissioned, the plant's capacity will increase from its current levels of 2,000 MW to 4,400 MW.