BRUSSELS, March 21. /TASS/. Nuclear energy should not be held hostage to the ideological views of politicians, it should be treated as a clean and safe energy source, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

"Nuclear energy is hostage to an ideological approach. We have to free it from that," the Hungarian prime minister told reporters upon his arrival at the nuclear energy summit held by the IAEA and Belgium in Brussels. He pointed out that nuclear power allows energy to be produced in a clean and safe way, and "it should be treated as such." "Hungary supports the development of nuclear energy," Orban emphasized.

Hungary operates the Paks nuclear power plant, which was built with Soviet technologies in the 1980s and now uses Russian nuclear fuel. It provides half of all generated and one third of consumed electricity in Hungary. Next to it, the Paks-2 nuclear power plant, designed by Rosatom, is now under construction. The plant is scheduled to start operating in the early 2030s.