Illustrative photo – Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary.
Budapest – Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said today that the German government is “blocking” permits needed for Siemens Energy to supply key control equipment for new reactors at Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant. They are being built by the Russian state company Rosatom, Reuters reminded today.
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Siemens Energy together with the French company Framatome has a contract for the supply of the mentioned system. Hungary's foreign minister said in a statement that while France had granted the necessary permission, the German government had still not given it the green light.
“This could be qualified as an attack on our sovereignty, because the security of energy supply is a matter of sovereignty,” Szijjártó said. According to Hungarian news agency MTI, he added that the German economy and foreign ministers “are putting the security of Hungary's future energy supplies at risk”. BAFA) has not yet decided on its application for an export license for the Hungarian supply, Reuters reports, according to which the German Economy Ministry declined to comment on the matter last week.
Hungary plans to expand its Paks nuclear power plant, which lies about 100 kilometers south of Budapest and covers roughly half of the country's electricity consumption.
Hungary signed an agreement with the Russian concern Rosatom on the construction of two reactors in 2014. The contract, which Rosatom won without a public tender, is often referred to as a sign of good relations between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin, wrote Reuters.
Last December, the Hungarian Parliament approved a extending the service life of the four existing reactors of the Paks nuclear power plant.
