Magyar questions future of Hungary-Russia nuclear deal

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has cast doubt on a nuclear power expansion deal with Russia, putting one of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s signature agreements with Moscow under review.

Magyar said that his government was carrying out a full review of the Paks II project, including its financing and cooling arrangements, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The project involves Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom building two new reactors at Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant.

“These plans were accepted despite the fact that nuclear power plants that do not operate with a closed-circuit cooling system and are so exposed to the environment are no longer being built in the world,” said Magyar.

His comments came as weeks of extreme heat and drought have pushed the Danube River to record lows, sharply reducing output at the existing Paks nuclear plant. The facility normally supplies around a third of Hungary’s electricity but has seen its output fall to little more than 10 per cent.

Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev said the company remained on schedule to build the two reactors despite Hungary’s change of government in April, when Magyar ousted Russia-friendly incumbent Viktor Orbán.

Likhachev said concrete preparation for Unit 5 was more than 80 percent complete, while work on Unit 6 was progressing and reactor components were already being manufactured.

“We are ready for dialogue,” Likhachev said, adding that Rosatom had received no questions from Hungary’s new government.

Magyar disputed that account hours later. He said the original contract required Paks II to be operational by 2024, but Hungary had instead spent roughly 1,000 billion forints (€2.8 billion) on what he described as little more than depots and “two large concrete pits.”

“I don’t really see that they have adhered to the contract,” Magyar said.

The Paks II agreement was signed by Orbán in Moscow in 2014, giving Rosatom responsibility for the two-reactor expansion with up to €10 billion in Russian state financing. Orbán later described the project as the “deal of the century.”

The nuclear partnership remained in place after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But Magyar’s review now puts the future of the project, including its financing and cooling system, under fresh scrutiny.

The issue has also gained urgency because of low water levels on the Danube. On Thursday, Romania shut down the second and last operating reactor at its Cernavodă nuclear plant after the river fell too low to supply its cooling pumps.

By Aghakazim Guliyev