BUDAPEST, November 2. /TASS/. Nuclear fuel supplies from France to the Paks nuclear power plant (NPP) in Hungary will not affect its partnership with Rosatom, Zsolt Harfas, a Hungarian expert on nuclear energy, told TASS when commenting on the signing of a contract between France’s Framatome and the NPP in Paks.
"At the moment no one except Rosatom is licensed to supply fuel for VVER-440 reactors. In accordance with the contract the Russian supplier, the TVEL company [part of Rosatom], has been supplying fuel to the Paks NPP reliably and on schedule for more than four decades," he said.
"Russian fuel is safe, no problems related to its quality have ever emerged, and TVEL constantly improves the fuel supplied to the Paks NPP as it finds ways to fulfill this contract, adapting to the new geopolitical situation, using alternative transport routes, including air transport, over the past several years," the expert added.
"Framatome can only produce fuel for the Paks NPP in cooperation with the Russian developer and fuel producer," he stressed. "Despite the fact that the production location has shifted, cooperation between the Paks NPP and Rosatom and its nuclear fuel producer TVEL may continue as the planned extension of the Paks NPP’s service life will also require cooperation in a number of areas," Harfas explained.
Contract between Framatome and Paks NPP
On October 25, Framatome and a division of the MVM energy corporation managing the NPP in Paks, signed a contract which stipulates that the French company will start supplying fuel rods to the Hungarian plant starting in 2027. To date, only Russian nuclear fuel has been supplied to it. Speaking at a news conference in Budapest, Hungarian State Secretary for Energy and Climate Policy, Attila Steiner, called the conclusion of this agreement an important step in terms of the security of fuel supply.
That said, the signing of the contract with the French company does not mean abandoning the use of Russian nuclear fuel at the Paks NPP. The Hungarian NPP and Rosatom will continue long-term cooperation, including in the area of delivering fuel assemblies to the plant.
Until 2022, nuclear fuel was delivered by rail to Paks from Russia through the territory of Ukraine, but after the start of the armed conflict in this country, the route had to be changed. Now the special cargo is transported by ship across the Black Sea under the protection of military ships to the Bulgarian port of Varna, where it is loaded onto a train and then transported through Bulgaria and Romania to Hungary. As a rule, nuclear power plants keep at least two years worth of fuel reserves on hand.
The possibility of using alternative nuclear fuel at the Paks NPP instead of Russian fuel is enshrined in law in Hungary. In late 2023, the parliament supported a relevant amendment to the nuclear energy strategy proposed by the government. The cabinet noted that given the ongoing attempts by the European Union to impose sanctions against Rosatom, Budapest needed to take precautions and provide options for replacing Russian fuel.
The service life of four power units of the Paks NPP, which was built by Soviet specialists 40 years ago, was supposed to end in 2032-2037. However, it is assumed that they will operate until at least 2052-2057. Meanwhile, the second stage of the Paks NPP is being built in Paks (Paks-2), where the fifth and the sixth power units designed by Rosatom will operate.