Rosatom expects to pour first concrete for Hungary's Paks II NPP in Oct-Nov
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - Rosatom expects to pour the first concrete for the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Hungary in October-November "if everything goes according to our plan", the Russian state nuclear energy corporation's CEO Alexei Likhachev told journalists.
"If everything goes according to our plan, it will be October-November," Likhachev said when asked when the first concrete could be poured for the project.
Hungary "is demonstrating a willingness to launch extensive construction work as soon as possible," he said.
The lifting of restrictions that hindered Gazprombank's participation in this project, of which Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has informed the company, "allows us to move forward at a completely different speed than it happened before that," Likhachev said.
It became known last week that U.S. authorities had extended a license to nuclear power transactions with sanctioned Russian banks. The general license was published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). It is valid until December 19, 2025. The previous one was due to expire on June 30.
Initially, the license, issued in December 2024, only applied to Gazprombank. Issuing the license, the OFAC said that the temporary exemption from sanctions applied to projects launched before the bank was placed on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List (dated November 21, 2024). For instance, it could involve transactions relating to uranium production/enrichment and fuel production for nuclear power plants, OFAC said, noting that the license did not apply to new projects, such as the construction of the Paks II NPP in Hungary.
Later, the license was extended to Sberbank , VTB , Sovcombank , Alfa-Bank and several other lending organizations, as well as the VEB.RF state corporation.
In 2009, the Hungarian parliament approved the construction of two new power units at the Soviet-built Paks NPP, Hungary's only nuclear power plant. The cost of the project was then estimated at 12.5 billion euros. In 2014, Moscow and Budapest signed an agreement on a long-term loan of up to 10 billion euros for the NPP's construction.
In late August 2022, Hungary's Atomic Energy Authority granted Russia's Rosatom state atomic energy corporation a permit to build the fifth and sixth units at the Paks NPP. In May 2023, the European Commission approved amendments to the agreement on the facility's construction and financing. Rosatom said then it could pour the first concrete at the NPP site in 2024.
