Hungary has reached an agreement with the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) regarding Russia’s supply of nuclear fuel for the country’s Paks power plant. Janos Lazar, chief of staff of Hungarian Prime Minister told national news agency MTI recently.
Lazar also informed that European Commission will soon approve the fuel agreement, after his talks with Miguel Arias Canete, EU’s Commissioner for Climate and Energy in Brussels. Under the revised agreement, Russia will supply fuel for the plant for the first 10 years.Last year, Hungary selected Russia’s Rosatom to build two nuclear power blocks of 1,200 megawatts each at its Paks power plant, financed partly by Russian loan worth 10 billion Euros.
“Hungary had accepted the concerns of the European Commission, and we will settle the fuel supply deal for the Paks nuclear plant based on the Finnish model,” Lazar said.
It may be mentioned here that Russia will supply nuclear fuel to Finland’s Fenovoima NPP, which will be built by Russia’s state corporation- Rosatom as well.
Lazar further informed that the solution was also acceptable to Russia. Under the original deal signed with Moscow in January 2014, Russia would have supplied fuel for the new reactors in Paks for 20 years.
The Euratom Supply Agency, who is in charge of nuclear fuel supply across the EU had sought changes to the Paks supply deal, asking that players other than Russians be allowed to supply to the plant in the future. – Triune Group press release
