BUDAPEST, December 9. /TASS/. Preparations for the first concrete pouring in the foundation of Hungary's Paks 2 nuclear power plant are going faster than planned, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced after a meeting of the Russian-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation in Moscow.
"Good news from Moscow about Paks 2! We are advancing faster than planned with preparations for the first concrete pouring, so we will begin installing reinforcement [for the concrete pour] next week, not in January," the foreign minister wrote on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation, which is recognized as extremist in Russia).
Szijjarto accompanied his post with photos taken at a meeting with Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev.
On November 28, following a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, Szijjarto announced that the two leaders had agreed to significantly speed up the construction of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant.
"The first concrete is scheduled to be poured on February 5," the foreign minister said.
The pouring of the first concrete into the foundation of Unit 5 at Paks will mark a significant milestone in the construction of the new nuclear power plant. Once completed, the International Atomic Energy Agency will officially classify the facility as a "nuclear power plant under construction."
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority has issued all necessary permits for this step.
On December 8, Likhachev told TASS that Putin and Orban had been invited to the ceremony to pour the first concrete into the foundation of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant in February 2026.
The Paks 2 project is exempt from EU and US sanctions against Russia. During a recent visit to Washington, Orban received assurances from President Donald Trump that US restrictions would not hinder the construction of the new plant.
Currently, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, built by Soviet specialists in the 1980s and powered by Russian nuclear fuel, accounts for half of Hungary's total electricity generation and a third of its consumption. Located on the banks of the Danube River 100 km south of Budapest, the plant operates four power units with VVER-440 reactors. Construction of the second stage of the plant—units five and six—is simultaneously underway.
Once the two new VVER-1200 reactors are operational, the Paks nuclear complex's capacity will increase from the current 2,000 to 4,400 megawatts.