Musk Pulls the Plug on Funding Against Paks II

Media outlets that claim to be independent but have criticized the Paks II project with foreign financial assistance now face a somewhat harder time, as they will no longer receive US support. Magyar Nemzet discussed this development with Zsolt Harfas, a nuclear energy expert, to understand how some publications waged politically motivated campaigns against the project, which is essential for the production of carbon-free electricity In Hungary.

Elon Musk (Photo: AFP)

Captive Europe

Over the past few years, Szabad Europa has published a steady stream of false information questioning the need for the Paks II project and about Rosatom, the technology supplier, all at the expense of American taxpayers.

Szabad Europa also followed the American narrative that casts doubt on the performance and reliability of the currently world-leading Russian nuclear energy industry, while sympathizing with the American nuclear energy industry, which has been at a competitive disadvantage for years, or rather decades,

said the expert, who has previously exposed the falsehoods published on the news site.

Deliberate obfuscation

Speaking about misleading readers, Zsolt Harfas also mentioned Greenfo, another outlet that lost US embassy funding, pointing out its regular publication of anti-Paks II articles written by Bence Tordai, leader of the Dialogue for Hungary – Greens parliamentary group. In his latest opinion piece, for example, the politician suggested that the Hungarian authorities have failed to help reduce the temperature of the water that cools the old and new nuclear power plant units before it is returned to the Danube. It is a fact that protecting the river’s ecosystem from overly warm cooling water is essential, which is why peak cooling systems will be built to ensure that the water returned is below the regulatory temperature limit. This is not a secret, and numerous articles have covered the issue. In fact, as the expert pointed out, the cooling systems are even featured on the visual design illustrating Tordai’s article.

And the list goes on. The US embassy also provided support for a podcast called Nyugati Palyan. The little-known entity (22 episodes published since 2022) has spent a handsome sum of money, 140 million forints so far, on advertising, according to Facebook's ad library data. "The German Grassroots Foundation supported blog posts from Atomcsapda, which contained blatant falsehoods about nuclear energy. The Paksi Riot group, which also criticized the Paks II project, was funded by George Soros's Open Society Institute," Harfas continued. He also recalled that the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism funded the anti-nuclear activities of Energiaklub for years to initiate various legal proceedings against Paks II. This was documented in their 2019 financial report, and the civil sector organization continued to receive Austrian funding apparently as recently as 2023, the expert said. In conclusion, Zsolt Harfas emphasized that  in the country's interest, Hungary must continue to protect the construction of its two new Paks II nuclear blocks by all means necessary, as it is clear from the above that the project has been, and still is, under significant attack from various sources.

Cover photo: Elon Musk (Photo: AFP)