VIENNA, September 16. /TASS/. The first concrete will be poured into the foundation of the future Rosatom-designed Paks 2 nuclear power plant (NPP) in Hungary before the end of this year, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto said.

"The first concrete will be poured by year-end," he said.

"Concurrently, we are working on extension of the service life of four operating units," Szijjarto added.

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, which meets the most modern standards of reliability and safety. It was reported that Russia would give Hungary a state loan of up to 10 billion euros for the Paks-2 project, with the total cost of construction exceeding 12.5 billion 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.