14 Jun (NucNet): Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán has appointed Gyula Fichtinger as the new director-general of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA).
Mr Fichtinger replaces József Rónaky, who has stepped down because of mandatory conditions on public servant retirement in Hungary.
Mr Fichtinger was previously deputy director-general for nuclear safety at the HAEA. He was educated in Moscow, where he graduated from the University of Energy in 1983. He also holds an engineering degree in nuclear technology from the Roland Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, and is a qualified technical advisor and nuclear safety inspector.
Mr Fichtinger worked at Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, the four-unit Paks, and at the Hungarian Electricity Board before joining the HAEA in 1990.
The announcement came days after the International Atomic Energy Agency completed a two-week nuclear security review mission in Hungary.
The agency reviewed the nation’s nuclear security-related legislative and regulatory framework, physical protection systems at nuclear facilities, and security arrangements applied to the transport of nuclear and radioactive materials.
The IAEA team conducting the mission said that nuclear security has been significantly enhanced in Hungary in recent years. They identified a number of good practices at the nation’s nuclear facilities.
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