Russia to begin construction of two nuclear reactors in Hungary
The Russian state corporation Rosatom will soon begin the construction of two new power units at the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary, as announced on Tuesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“Rosatom will soon start the construction of two new power units at the Paks nuclear power plant,” said Putin after the talks with Orban.
Putin stressed that the commissioning of additional capacity will allow doubling the production of electricity and meeting the demand of the Hungarian economy for years to come.
Orban noted that under the circumstances where Russia is neither a member of the EU nor NATO, the implementation of the joint project “was quite a brave decision”.
“Of course, all this causes various technical issues: licenses, permits, bureaucratic practice of the EU. There are various difficulties but I believe that we must accomplish this undertaking, which is the flagship in the cooperation between the East and West. We will realize it, and it will be our mutual success, which will not only contribute the Hungarian-Russian contacts but will also modernize the energy structure of the EU,” the Hungarian prime minister said.
Russia and Hungary signed an agreement on the construction of two power units at the Paks nuclear power plant in 2014. At that time, the Hungarian opposition said that the contract was not only too expensive but it also increased Budapest’s dependence on Moscow.