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No turning back on Paks 2 NPP construction — senior Hungarian diplomat

Levente Magyar confirmed that the first concrete is scheduled to be poured into the foundation of the plant’s unit 5 on February 5

BUDAPEST, December 2. /TASS/. The construction of the Rosatom-designed Paks 2 nuclear power plant in Hungary will be finished to completion, Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Levente Magyar assured.

"Works to build the nuclear plant’s foundation will begin in February. From this point forward, there is no turning back. This facility will be built as scheduled and as envisaged by our commitments," he said after visiting the construction site.

He confirmed that the first concrete is scheduled to be poured into the foundation of the plant’s unit 5 on February 5. Specialists view this action as a cornerstone stage in the construction process as after this is done the facility will be referred to as a nuclear plant under construction, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criteria.

"After the first concrete is poured, investments [in Paks 2] will be physically irreversible," Magyar said, as quoted by the Hungarian foreign ministry. The diplomat stressed that now there are no political, financial, legal, or technical obstacles for the implementation of this project.

The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority has issued all necessary permissions for the construction in Paks. The project has been exempt from the European Union and the United States’ anti-Russian sanctions. During his visit to Washington on November 7, Hungarian Prime Minister received US President Donald Trump’s reassurances that US sanctions would not apply to the construction of the new plant.

The Paks NPP, which was built with Soviet technologies back in the 1980s, 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. Concurrently, construction is underway for the plant’s units 5 and 6 that are scheduled to be connected to the grid in the early 2030s. After the two new VVER-1200 nuclear reactors are commissioned, Paks’ generating capacity is expected to increase from the current 2,000 MW to 4,400 MW.

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