Few professionals approve of Paks 2 plans

From the usual report of the National Atomic Energy Agency (HAEA) at the beginning of the year, it can be summed up, among other things, that there are not enough people to license Paks 2, or at least the situation is quite difficult. Ultimately, this follows from the details found on the various pages of the text.

The plans for Paks 2 were received by the agency on June 30 last year, which has 15 months to process the application for a building permit (although if you request a deficiency, you can extend it). The actual construction of the new nuclear power plant can only begin after the issuance of this permit; this is already a significant delay compared to the original plans, as in January 2014 the Hungarian government promised that by 2023 the first of the two new units would already produce. According to the current schedule, it is good that in 2022 the construction itself begins.

In the early years, investment was delayed due to European Commission investigations, and then when the permits arrived in Brussels in early 2016, Roszatom had not been able to present plans for years. Everything indicated that an EU-compatible version of the planned reactors was not yet ready, as the Finnish counterpart of the HAEA had also not received the plans, despite the fact that preparations for the same type of power plant had started earlier.

Downsizing and downsizing during the toughest and largest jobs

So the plans came in the middle of last summer, and as the HAEA report says:

“The evaluation of this is the largest volume of procedures in the existence of the Office, involving several disciplines, and the file itself is tens of thousands of pages.”

By comparison, in 2019 the HAEA “Their originally planned workforce has been reduced by almost a tenth” it’s in another part of the report. Then they say:

“All of this poses significant challenges for the organization, as recruitment can only take place when outgoing and retired employees are replaced. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the entire nuclear industry in Hungary is currently in dire need of engineering. “.

That is, when the authority is working on the largest task in its 30-year history and would have to allow the construction of two new units of nuclear power plants, one of which is not yet in operation in the EU, the government has decimated staff and then ordered a staff stop.

Is this how the government slows down licensing?

We asked HAEA if staff shortages could cause a delay in evaluating Paks 2 plans. According to the agency’s response “It cannot be ruled out. Currently, we can only solve the task with an internal redistribution.”

The government’s goal may be to slow down licensing, as the terms of the Russian-Hungarian deal negotiated in 2013 no longer seem favorable at all. The Russians are asking for an interest rate so high that the Hungarian side has prepaid all costs so far, usually replacing the Russian government loan with another loan. However, due to the epidemic, Hungarian indebtedness is increasing, government revenues are declining and this would make prepayment significantly more difficult. At the same time, there are growing doubts about whether Hungary should receive two large nuclear power plants from the 1930s.

The agency informed us that a possible staff expansion was being negotiated with ITM since 2018 and that a government decision would be needed to hire more staff.

Suspiciously long section on a possibility prohibited by law

The report also cautiously notes that, in principle, the useful life of existing blocks could be extended. HAEA leads the way by saying that “Currently, the law does not allow to extend the operating time.” In comparison, a longer paragraph addresses the topic, indicating that if it were possible, there would be a way to do it.

The issue of extension can only be relevant because the Mátra Central, which supplies around a fifth of domestic electricity production, will have to be closed soon, and if the Paks units fail and the new ones are not built, only solar panels and gas power plants. in national production, and although the production of the first is unpredictable, the second is quite expensive.