After this milestone, Hungary plans to start buying US-made nuclear fuel bars from Westinghouse Group.
The information was announced by Hungarian Energy Minister Csaba Lantos in an interview with Inforadio.
"According to the plan, after 2028, the Paks nuclear power plant will use 75% of the fuel bars produced in France under a Russian license and 25% of the fuel supplied by the US," he said, emphasizing that Hungary aims to avoid depending on a single supplier.
Fuel for the Paks nuclear power plant will be produced in a joint venture in Europe founded by Russia's Rosatom Group and France's framatome. Hungary has also signed a deal with the US corporation Westinghouse to develop its own nuclear fuel for the plant.
Basically, 75% of the fuel will be provided by a Russia-France joint venture. The remainder will be provided by Westinghouse after completing licensing procedures," said Csaba Minister Lantos.
Previously, on December 7, Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that a new batch of nuclear fuel from Russia had been transferred to the Paks nuclear power plant. The current fuel reserve of the plant is enough to be used until November 2028.
The Paks nuclear power plant was built by Soviet experts in the 1980s, currently producing about half of Hungary's total electricity and meeting about a third of the country's electricity consumption needs.
The plant is located on the banks of the Danube River, about 100km south of the capital Budapest, currently operating four generators with VVER-440 reactors. At the same time, Hungary is implementing the second phase of the project, including teams 5 and 6.
After the two new VVER-1200 reactors are put into operation, the power generation capacity of the Paks nuclear power complex is expected to increase from the current 2,000 MW to about 4,400 MW, thereby continuing to play a key role in Hungary's energy security.
