The US government has lifted sanctions which affected the expansion of Hungary’s Paks NPP (Paks II), according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. A Foreign Ministry statement noted that the previous US Administration led by Joe Biden had taken a number of political decisions that placed Hungary in a difficult situation. “With one of these sanctions’ measures, they tried to make Hungary’s long-term safe energy supply impossible by implementing restrictions on the construction of the Paks nuclear power plant that made it practically impossible to continue construction, Szijjártó said.
“Fortunately, since January, there has been a president in the White House in Washington who sees Hungary as a friend. In this spirit, the American government lifted the sanctions related to investment in the Paks nuclear power plant. For this, we are grateful to President Donald Trump and to the Republican administration. The investment in Paks guarantees Hungary’s safe energy supply in the long term.”
He added: “With this, we ensure that we can take our energy supply into our own hands in the long term and guarantee that the Hungarian people pay the lowest utility bills in Europe.” Szijjártó noted that the production of key equipment for Paks II is ongoing in Russia and France and that “construction can now gain new momentum”.
The Paks II 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 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.
