New Blocks at Hungary's Paks Nuclear Power Plant to be Licensed by 2014-15

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Hungary's sole nuclear power facility, the Paks nuclear power plant, could gain an additional 2,000 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity by 2020-25, after the announcement this month that the licensing process for two new blocks at the plant is planned for completion by 2014-15.

In May last year, the Hungarian government announced that it intended to develop the country's power generation capacity by building new power plants with a total capacity of 6,000 MW, to which nuclear reactors would contribute 2,000 MW.

Construction of the Paks plant occurred between 1967 and 1987, and the plant began commercial operations in December 1982. Paks contains four Soviet-designed VVER-440/V213 pressurized water reactors that, under the original operating license, are scheduled to be shut down in 2012. However, feasibility studies conducted in 2000 and 2005 have shown that the plant is capable of remaining in operation for an additional 20 years, and the Hungarian parliament passed a resolution in 2005 granting an extension.

In 2006, the first reactor was upgraded from its nominal capacity of 440 MW to 500 MW. By last year, all four units had been similarly upgraded, giving the plant a total capacity of 2,000 MW. The Paks plant generated a total of 15,427 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2009, a substantial increase over the previous year, and the highest output ever recorded from the plant.

According to the director general of the Paks power plant, Janos Suly, the project to add generating capacity is expected to cost about 7.33 billion euros ($10 billion), with up to 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of the project being performed and supplied by Hungarian companies.

Several overseas companies have already expressed interest in tendering for the project, including Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Monroeville, Pennsylvania), AtomStroyExport (Moscow, Russia), a consortium of Areva SA (EPA:CEI) (Paris, France) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited (TYO:7011) (Tokyo, Japan), and an unnamed French-German joint venture.

The Paks power plant is owned and operated by state-owned Hungarian Electricity Works (MVM) (Budapest), and the plant supplies about 40% of Hungary's electricity, with the remaining capacity supplied by gas-fired power plants, coal-fired plants, and renewable sources such as biomass, hydroelectric and wind power plants.

As a signatory to the Kyoto protocol, Hungary aims to increase the contribution of renewable energy to its electric generation mix. Currently, biomass is the largest source of renewable energy, but wind power generation has grown in recent years in the country.

In November last year, MVM announced the acquisition of Hungarowind (Budapest), the operator of one of the most important windfarms in the country. The windfarm has eight wind turbines and generates a total of 23 MW of electricity, representing 18% of the country's total wind-generated electricity.

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