Hungary has decided in favour of a sustainable, affordable and safe source of energy with the enlargement of the Paks Atomic Power Station, Attila Aszódi, the Government Commissioner responsible for maintaining the capacity of the Paks Atomic Power Station stressed at the plenary session of the Atomexpo 2016 international nuclear energy forum held on Monday in Moscow.

He highlighted that, learning from the conclusions of the disasters which occurred at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power stations, upon the planning of the Paks II project, they will pay particular attention to nuclear safety on the basis of the relevant international and EU requirements in order to ensure that no radioactive material may escape into the environment of the power station under any circumstances. After the plenary meeting, Mr Aszódi told Hungarian journalists: based on the main contracting agreement, within the Rosatom Group, the Nizhny Novgorod engineering company „Atomenergoproekt” (ASE-NIAEP) will carry out the planning and design work, and it will be the responsibility of the Hungarian party to check and verify the plans.

The Government Commissioner told the press: the recovery of the new blocks depends on the cost of the generation of electricity, the quantity of electricity the power plant will be able to generate, and the price at which the power plant will be able to sell the electricity on the market. According to their calculations, the prime cost of the Paks II block will be around EUR 50-57 per megawatt-hour. The new blocks will achieve a 90-92 per cent average annual peak capacity in such a way that most of them time they will be operating at 100 per cent capacity.

They took account of a number of price projections upon calculating the anticipated market price of the electricity to be generated by the new blocks, Mr Aszódi said, including that of the German Ministry of Economy which projects prices on the world market of electricity of around EUR 65-70 or as much as EUR 80-85 per megawatt-hour for the periods between 2025-2030 and extending to 2040. Based on these world market electricity prices, the initial investment of the Paks II project will be recovered, and at a wholesale electricity price of EUR 60 per megawatt-hour, the blocks of the power station will be able to cover all the costs as of the first year, Mr Aszódi stressed.

At the plenary meeting Sergey Kirienko, Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned Rosatom Concern highlighted that in order to meet the undertakings of the Paris climate conference, there is a need for carbon-dioxide-free energy production. The Chief Executive of Rosatom stressed that a healthy balance must be struck between the generation of nuclear energy and the production of alternative energy with regard to the available natural features and possibilities.

Kirill Komarov, First Deputy CEO for Operations Management of Rosatom said at the opening of Atomexpo: there is increased interest in nuclear energy. This is also testified to by the fact that this year’s international forum, which focuses on nuclear energy as a carbon-dioxide emission-free energy source, has attracted some 4,000 attendees from 55 countries.

(MTI)