Arya News - The lifting of several US restrictions on funding for the Paks II nuclear power plant in Hungary has allowed Rosatom to take its work to a new level, including with Hungarian and European contractors, the Russian state corporation`s CEO, Alexey Likhachev, told Sputnik.
"We"ve now ramped up our work. As you know, the Americans have lifted several restrictions on funding for the Paks II plant. This has allowed us to restart financial flows and take our work to a new level, including with Hungarian and European contractors," Likhachev said. According to initial plans, the pouring of the first concrete for the fifth unit of the nuclear power plant was scheduled for March 2025, but was postponed due to US sanctions against Gazprombank and six of its foreign subsidiaries. In June, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Sputnik that the pouring of the first concrete at the Paks II nuclear power plant had been postponed until 2026. Following his visit to Washington in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that US sanctions against the Paks II nuclear power plant project had been completely lifted. In December, the US Treasury Department"s Office of Foreign Assets Control cleared civil nuclear energy transactions with several Russian banks, the Central Bank, and the Russian National Clearing House. Hungary"s only nuclear power plant, Paks, is located 100 kilometers from Budapest and five from the city of Paks, it currently generates almost half of Hungary"s electricity, and with the planned commissioning of two new Paks units, this share is expected to double. For Hungary, nuclear energy is a key to energy security, as the country"s leadership has repeatedly emphasized. The Paks II Nuclear Power Plant, with two Generation III+ VVER-1200 power units, will be built on a turnkey basis. The new Hungarian units have a guaranteed service life of 60 years. The Paks II Nuclear Power Plant is the first Russian project in the European Union. The main construction license for the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant was issued by the Hungarian regulator in August 2022. The license confirms that the modern Russian Generation III+ VVER-1200 power units meet the most stringent international and European safety requirements. ASE Engineering Company, a Rosatom subsidiary, is the project"s general contractor.