Paks II NPP project continues cooperating with Western suppliers of equipment to Hungary
MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - International equipment suppliers have given assurances that they would continue collaborating with the Paks II nuclear power plant project in Hungary, as international sanctions imposed against Russia do not affect the nuclear industry, Janos Suli, a Hungarian minister without a portfolio in charge of the project, was quoted as saying in a press release posted on the Paks II website.
Investment in the project will be conducted as part of international cooperation, with U.S.-France GE-Alstom supplying the turbine and the consortium of France-Germany Framatome-Siemens carrying out inspection and control work, Suli explained.
Speaking about the project's progress, Sui said that the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority had extended the validity of the site license by five years, leaving the prescribed conditions unchanged, as based on the application of Paks II. Ltd.
Paks II has received construction licenses for more than half of the construction and installation works. New documents will be released shortly, which will allow moving to the second stage of the project.
Hungary is counting on an expedited issuance of the construction license for the Paks II NPP, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in early February.
"In terms of constructing the NPP, we hope to receive the final license soon, meaning that the process would automatically move to the second phase, which is construction," Orban said.
The only Soviet-designed Paks NPP currently in Hungary has four power units with VVER-440 reactors with total output capacity of about 2 GW.
The Hungarian parliament in 2009 approved the construction of two new power units at the NPP, though the European Commission's lengthy proceedings have affected the construction timeframes.
The project reportedly costs around 12.5 billion euros, with Russia's Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation having signed contracts for completing construction of the NPP in December 2014. In March of the same year, Russia and Hungary signed an agreement on a long-term loan of up to 10 billion euros.