During Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent visit to the US, following a summit meeting with President Donald Trump, wide ranging nuclear co-operation was among the many agreements concluded.
Both Trump and Orbán described the summit meeting as a milestone in strengthening economic, energy, and defence cooperation, with Trump granting Hungary a full exemption from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports through the TurkStream and Druzhba pipelines.
Prime Minister Orbán announced at a joint press conference with Foreign Affairs & Trade Péter Szijjártó that Hungary had secured an indefinite and comprehensive exemption from US sanctions targeting Russian energy sources. “We have managed to protect the utility price cuts, which means Hungary will continue to have the lowest energy prices in Europe,” Orbán noted.
Orbán also confirmed that the US will lift the remaining restrictions related to the Paks II nuclear project introduced under the Biden administration. He stressed that the exemption from sanctions is not just extended but is completely abolished. There are no obstacles from the Americans in this regard, he said. The US and Hungary also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on civil nuclear cooperation, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and used fuel storage. The MOU foresees potential investments of up to $20bn.
In addition, Hungary concluded a deal with US-based Westinghouse to supply nuclear fuel for the Paks NPP and committed to purchasing $600m worth of American liquefied natural gas (LNG). ‘We will introduce American technology in Hungary and create the legal framework for the construction of small modular reactors,’ Orbán said, adding that the Hungarian parliament would amend the relevant laws. Finance, defence and space co-operation was also discussed, and academic and scientific ties were strengthened.
Orbán characterised the meeting as “a day of Hungary in Washington”, noting that multiple ministerial-level discussions were held alongside the leaders’ summit. He described the talks as those of “two allied states with shared interests”, adding that no major disagreements emerged.
Péter Szijjártó signed the intergovernmental nuclear energy cooperation agreement with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Szijjártó noted in a Foreign Ministry statement that, in recent years, huge factories have been built and are being built in Hungary, and more electricity is needed for their operation, and this demand can only be ensured through nuclear energy. “Therefore, a key issue for Hungary’s energy security … is that we can increase the capacities related to nuclear energy. And in order to be able to increase nuclear capacities, more nuclear fuel elements are needed.”
He added: “Therefore, in addition to maintaining existing supplier relationships, we will also buy American nuclear fuel elements for the first time in Hungarian energy history. In addition, it is important to store used nuclear fuel elements safely so that they cannot be harmful to the environment and health. We will buy the most modern American technology available, so that the used fuel elements do not even have to be removed from the Paks NPP and can be safely stored on site.”
As to further cooperation with the US, he also touched on SMRs, which will be able to cover the energy needs of a larger industrial area or city. “Those are the three areas we have agreed – nuclear fuel, proper storage of used fuel and small nuclear power plants…. This adds a whole new dimension, a nuclear cooperation dimension, to Hungarian-American cooperation.”
He also noted that IBM will introduce digital technologies at Paks as part of an international consortium, which also includes Hungarian and Australian companies. “Thus, we can now say that there is real participation of American corporations in the construction of new units of the nuclear power plant in Paks,” he said.
Hungary’s Magyar Villamos Művek (MVM) Group, owner of the Paks NPP, meanwhile reported that it had signed a contract with Westinghouse Electric Company to diversify Hungary’s nuclear fuel supply. Westinghouse agreed to supply VVER fuel produced in Europe for the Paks NPP. Depending on the licensing processes, Westinghouse expects to deliver VVER-440 fuel to Hungary from 2028. The US Embassy in Budapest said the agreement is valued at around $114m.
“Our agreement with Westinghouse is a clear response to today’s challenges, which further strengthens the role of Hungary’s number one power plant in domestic energy supply,” said MVM Group CEO Károly Mátrai. “With this strategically important step, the operation of the Paks NPP becomes safer and more flexible. Diversified fuel procurement reduces external exposures, means predictability and affordable energy for families and corporate customers.”
Tarik Choho, Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel President, noted: “We look forward to delivering Westinghouse VVER fuel to Paks and to work with Hungary on its fuel diversification goals. With this contract, we now serve all VVER operators in Europe and Ukraine, helping them increase their security of supply.”
The Paks II expansion project was launched in 2014 by an inter-governmental agreement between Hungary and Russia for two VVER-1200 reactors to be supplied by Rosatom. The contract was supported by a Russian state loan to finance the majority of the project. The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority issued the licence for the units in August 2022. The existing Paks NPP comprises four VVER-440 power units launched between 1982 and 1987. Paks currently provides half of all generated and one third of the consumed electricity in Hungary.
The Paks NPP is currently fuelled entirely with fuel from Russia’s TVEL. Westinghouse has only recently completed development of VVER-440 fuel. The Westinghouse NOVA E-6 VVER-440 fuel is a modification of a 1996-98 fuel assembly design – NOVA E-3 (fixed assembly) and NOVCA (follower) developed in a programme involving BNFL (UK – which later took over Westinghouse), IVO (Finland) and PAKS (Hungary).
The programme included extensive testing and qualification of the new design. In June 1998, the manufacturing of five Lead Test Assemblies – four fixed and one follower assembly – at Springfields, UK, was completed and the fuel was delivered for insertion at unit 2 of Finland’s Loviisa NPP. Between 2001 and 2007, BNFL/Westinghouse delivered a total of 741 VVER-440 fuel assemblies to the Loviisa NPP in Finland which were manufactured by Enusa in Spain.
The NOVA E-3 and NOVCA designs were integrated into the Westinghouse fuel product portfolio, and all the intellectual property for the VVER-440 fuel was transferred from BNFL to Westinghouse in 2005-2006. However, in 2007 Loviisa decided to switch back to Russian fuel and Westinghouse withdrew from the market in 2008, closing down the supply chain and design development of the VVER-440 design.
Efforts to develop new design VVER-440 fuel restarted in 2014 in face of the demand for increased security of energy supply in Europe. Westinghouse, in a consortium comprising nine organisations, applied for a Euratom funded programme for diversification of the VVER fuel market in Europe, and was granted €2m ($16.5m) in 2015 to launch the ESSANUF programme, which ran until 2017. Development continued and in early 2023, Westinghouse and Enusa agreed to manufacture VVER-440 fuel using their factories at Västerås, in Sweden, and Juzbado (Salamanca), in Spain. The following September the first test assemblies were loaded at Ukraine’s Rivne NPP. The Dukovany NPP in the Czech Republic received the first delivery of Westinghouse VVER-440 fuel in July.
The Paks-II VVER-1200 reactors are currently expected to receive fuel from Russia.
