Russia, Hungary sign schedule for construction of Paks-2 nuclear power plant

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Moscow, Budapest signed on Tuesday a schedule for the construction of nuclear power plant (NPP) Paks-2 in Hungary, which is expected to be completed in the 2030s.

Head of the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation (Rosatom), Alexey Likhachev, signed the document for Moscow while Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Sijjarto, for Budapest, Rosatom press service said in a statement.

Speaking at a construction site at the city of Paks, Likhachev promised to pay "special attention to the Paks-2 NPP project and direct the best forces to it."

Sijjarto, for his part, said that Hungary will not support sanctions affecting cooperation with Russia.

The Paks NPP built by Soviet specialists in the 1980s provides half of all generated and a third of consumed electricity in Hungary.

Currently, four power units are operating at the nuclear power plant located on the banks of the Danube river 100 km south of Budapest, the construction of the fifth and sixth power units is underway.