11 Jan (NucNet): Hungarian regulators have renewed the operating licence of the Paks-1 nuclear reactor for an additional 20 years on condition that a number of conditions and safety requirements are met.
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA) granted the licence last month, ahead of the expiry of the unit’s operating licence on 31 December 2012.
But the HAEA said the plant operator – a subsidiary of state-owned Hungarian Power Companies Ltd (Magyar Villamos Művek, MVM) – must carry out a “more conservative” re-assessment of the seismic charge limits of parts of the facility and implement necessary reinforcements in 2013
Among a number of conditions, the HAEA also said ultrasound assessment must be carried out of parts of the primary reactor system and the metallic deflector in the turbo-generator building must be reinforced.
The HAEA said it had reviewed the licence renewal application for Paks-1, which comprised some 30,000 pages of technical documentation, and was satisfied that all safety requirements had been fulfilled.
Paks’ four VVER-440 units, which produce about 40 percent of Hungary’s domestic power supply, entered commercial operation between 1983 and 1987, with their licences expiring between 2012 and 2017. Operating extensions for units 2, 3 and 4 are pending.
Hungary is hoping to build two new units at Paks with plans to make the first operational by 2020 and the second by 2025. In June 2012, the government said the project was economically important and essential for Hungary’s security of energy supply.
In September 2012, MVM established a project company to plan the new units and obtain licences.
