MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. The Hungarian government is demonstrating its desire to start a large-scale construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant (NPP) as soon as possible, Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s state-run corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said.

"The Hungarian government is demonstrating a desire to join the large-scale construction [of Paks-2 NPP] as soon as possible," he told reporters.

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said earlier that the United States had canceled sanctions against Russia, which prevented the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in Hungary under Rosatom’s project. In late 2024 the administration of ex-US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions against Russia’s Gazprombank, through which the NPP construction project was financed, the minister noted.

In late November 2024, Washington introduced sanctions on Gazprombank through which Hungary paid for Russian oil and gas, as well as payments for the construction of the second stage of the NPP in Paks were carried out. Moscow and Budapest had to look for alternative payment options. Hungary has asked the administration of US President Donald Trump to remove sanctions against Gazprombank, which acts as a guarantor of financing the Paks-2 project.

The Paks NPP, which was built with Soviet technologies, and which uses Russian nuclear fuel, provides half of all generated and one third of consumed electricity in Hungary. At present, four power units with VVER-440 reactors operate at the station built about 100 kilometers south of Budapest on the banks of the Danube.

In late 2014, Russia and Hungary signed documents on the construction of new power units 5 and 6 at Paks NPP with reactor plants of the advanced VVER-1200 project. It was reported that Russia would give Hungary a state loan of up to 10 bln euros for the Paks-2 project, with the total cost of construction exceeding 12.5 bln euros. The Hungarian government expects that after the commissioning of two new VVER-1200 nuclear reactors, the plant's capacity will increase from the current 2,000 megawatts to 4,400 megawatts.