Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, March 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
News
Publish date: August 30, 2022
News
Hungary’s nuclear regulator has granted a construction licence for two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant, which are to be built by Russia’s state nuclear corporatiojn Rosatom under a 2014 €12.5 billion deal signed between Budapest and Moscow.
The war in Ukraine has not deterred Hungary’s interest in the project, which will add to the four Soviet-built reactors already operating at the Paks nuclear plant near Budapest.
That the project is moving forward is an indication of the warm ties between Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
This is a big step, an important milestone,” the Hungarian foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said on Facebook after the national regulator issued a permit on Thursday after numerous delays.
“We can now move from planning stage to construction. You’ll see that at the Paks site in the coming weeks,” said Szijjártó.
He added it was “realistic” the reactors could enter service by 2030.
Russia’s nuclear industry has not been included in the EU sanctions levies over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the Russian atomic industry and uranium exports to be included, but the European Commission has not put them in any of the sanctions packages so far.
Located in central Hungary, the plant currently generates 40 percent of the country’s electricity supply on four Soviet-design VVER-440 reactors. The project to build the two new Russian VVER-1200s expected to cost $12.4 billion, with Russia will financing most of the project with a $10 billion loan, while Hungary will pay for the remainder.
Finland, an EU member, cancelled a similar Russian nuclear power plant project in May over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the war in Ukraine, Hungary’s Orbán has irked other European leaders by maintaining a close relationship with the Kremlin and seeking to water down sanctions against Moscow.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has told the United Nations atomic energy watchdog that Russia plans to restart Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, currently occupied by Russian troops and technicians, fueling worries about a serious nuclear accident on the front lines of a grinding military conflict.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Brussels, Belgium – Today, the European Parliament approved the newly revised Construction Products regulation (CPR)...