Budapest sees large-scale VVER units at existing Paks site as priority
Hungary could consider buying one or more small modular reactor (SMR) plants but not earlier than 2029-2030, the country’s energy minister Csaba Lantos said in an interview for local media.
Lantos told the Világgazdaság website that a potential SMR unit should not be deployed at the existing Paks site in southern Hungary, but “somewhere where energy demand is growing.”
“Perhaps [deployment] somewhere in eastern Hungary, but other locations are also in the table,” he said.
According to Lantos, the smaller size of SMRs could allow their deployment next to rivers with smaller yields.
Asked about whether Budapest would consider Russian SMR technology, he said: “We need to explore all options.”
The existing Paks station is Hungary’s only commercial nuclear power facility. Its four reactors provide about 48% of the country’s electricity.
Lantos said the units are to reach the end of operation between 2032 and 2037, but he “would like” all four to get another 20 years of commercial lifetime. The decision cannot be political, but technical, said Lantos.
The Paks expansion project, or Paks 2, would see Russia supplying two new Generation III VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor units at the site in a deal financed mostly with a Russian loan.
The two new units are scheduled to come online by the early 2030s, but actual construction has not begun yet.
In central and eastern Europe, Poland, Romania, and Estonia are most advanced with plans to deploy US-made SMR plants, while the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine have announced official interest.
