Halting Paks Expansion Would Be A Massive Loss

The room for maneuver regarding Paks II is far narrower than some political or opinion-based arguments suggest. According to an expert who spoke to our newspaper, the real question is not how to back out of the project, but how to complete it under the strictest possible financial oversight, with the greatest possible participation of Hungarian industry, and with the highest degree of sovereignty.

The Paks II Nuclear Power Plant (Photo: MTI)

The technical foundation of Paks II  is the Russian Generation III+ VVER-1200 technology, but the project is being carried out through international cooperation, meaning that numerous Hungarian, American, and Western European—French, German, Austrian, Swedish, Swiss, and Dutch—companies are involved in constructing other parts of the plant and in the supplier chain.

Zsolt Harfas emphasized that Hungary’s energy policy is no longer at a stage where it must rely exclusively on a single Russian source for fuel procurement: in 2024, MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant and Framatome signed a long-term agreement under which French nuclear fuel will also be supplied to the Paks VVER-440 units from 2028, and in April 2026, MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant signed a new agreement with Framatome and other European companies to advance the development of a fully European VVER-440 fuel. In addition, the American company Westinghouse, subject to licensing procedures, may begin supplying fuel developed for VVER-440-type reactors to one of the Paks units from 2028.

As for further delays, unfortunately these cannot be ruled out even today. In recent years, all major European nuclear projects have faced difficulties stemming from financial, regulatory, supplier, geopolitical, and sanctions-related challenges. At the same time, the court did not rule that the construction of Paks II is prohibited, but rather that the European Commission had not examined procurement and state aid aspects in sufficient depth.

This was because, at the time, it was not a “Brussels expectation,” and procurement aspects had already been reviewed in a separate procedure and found to be in order.

For this reason, a legal issue does not equate to the automatic suspension of the project. The current situation therefore suggests that legal matters will need to be resolved in Brussels in the coming period, rather than that the investment will necessarily collapse.