MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s Rosatom Alexey Likhachev and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reached an agreement to continue the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant despite the current international political situation during the talks as part of a joint working visit to Turkey, the press service of the state-run corporation said in a statement.

"Following the talks the parties reached an agreement to continue implementing a major part of cooperation between Russia and Hungary, the construction of two new power units of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant considering the current international political situation," the statement reads. The high level of implementation of the project, which was reached thanks to joint efficient work with the Hungarian owner of construction of future power units built under the Russian 3+ generation NPP project, was particularly noted. Moreover, the high interest in implementation of the project of not only its main participants, but foreign partners as well was emphasized.

The Paks NPP plant, built by Soviet specialists in the 1980s and powered by Russian nuclear fuel, provides half of all electricity generated and a third of electricity consumed in Hungary. Currently four VVER-440 pressurized water reactors are in operation at the Paks NPP, located on the bank of the Danube 100 kilometers south of Budapest. The construction of a second stage of the plant - its fifth and sixth units - is in progress underway. Moscow has confirmed its readiness to finance the Paks-2 project, estimated at 12.5 bln euros, which from the very beginning was supposed to be 80%-funded with a Russian loan. According to preliminary calculations, after the commissioning of two new VVER-1200 reactors, the plant's capacity will increase from the current 2,000 megawatts to 4,400 megawatts.