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In Hungary, nuclear energy plays a decisive role in the national energy mix, While in 2006, only 38 percent of the country's electricity came from nuclear fission, by 2014 that proportion had risen to over 53 percent. It is predicted that rate of around 50 percent will be permanent in the near future. [1]
The first Hungarian nuclear reactor was built at Csillebérc (located in Budapest's 12th district) in 1959. The then 2 MWe reactor has been refurbished and modified several times over the last decades, and after its recent conversion its capacity has increased to 10 MW. The reactor was primarily used for research purposes, as well as for the training of the future Hungarian nuclear experts. Experiences gained by the first nuclear reactor had been also used at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. [2]
Construction on the first Hungarian commercial nuclear reactors began after the oil crisis in 1974. [3] The Paks Nuclear Power Plant Company (PAV) was founded on 1 January 1976. [3] The first reactor was completed in 1982. [4] Currently, in the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, there are four nuclear reactors with a net output capacity of 1,826 MWe. VVER is the Soviet designation for a pressurized water reactor. The number following VVER, in this case 440, represents the power output of the original design. The VVER-440 Model V213 was a product of the first uniform safety requirements drawn up by the Soviet designers. This model includes added emergency core cooling and auxiliary feedwater systems as well as upgraded accident localization systems. [5] Originally, these plants had expected lives of 30 years; however, the Hungarian government decided to complete 20-year life extension projects on the reactors. The cost of these projects will amount to approximately $900 million but will also increase total capacity to 2,000 MWe. Hungary also had plans to build two more reactors with capacities of 950 MWe each but cancelled the plans due to decreased power demand in the early 1990s. [6]
Hungary receives all of its fuel, uranium, from TVEL in Russia. [7] Spent fuel is normally disposed without reprocessing, though there are instances of spent fuel sent to Russia for reprocessing. For the spent fuel that is not reprocessed, it is kept at the nuclear reactor site for five years in pools and then sent to dry storage. Additionally, in 2005 the residents of Bátaapáti, in South Hungary, approved construction plans for low and intermediate-level waste storage facility. Parliament approved this construction in November 2005. The costs of this construction will be covered by the Central Nuclear Financial Fund, the fund the nuclear power companies pay into. [6] In December 2012, the storage facility started operation by receiving its first batch of nuclear waste. The construction costs were 68 billion forint (approx. $310 million). [8]
In January 2014, the Russian President and Hungarian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán agreed to build two VVER reactor units at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. [9] According to the €10 billion ($11 billion) intergovernmental agreement two new power units with the capacity of 1200 MW each will be constructed and are expected to start by 2030. [10]
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. As of September 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 410 nuclear power reactors in operation in 31 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction.
Rosatom, also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy goods and high-tech products. Established in 2007, the nonprofit organization comprises more than 350 enterprises, including scientific research organizations, a nuclear weapons complex, and the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet.
The Paks Nuclear Power Plant is located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the small town of Paks, central Hungary, 100km southwest of Budapest on the shores of the Danube river. It is the first and only operating nuclear power station in Hungary. In 2019, its four reactors produced more than 50% of Hungary's electricity production.
The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated 180 kilometres (110 mi) north of Sofia and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant and the largest in the region. The construction of the first reactor began on 6 April 1970.
The water-water energetic reactor (WWER), or VVER is a series of pressurized water reactor designs originally developed in the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. The idea of such a reactor was proposed at the Kurchatov Institute by Savely Moiseevich Feinberg. VVER were originally developed before the 1970s, and have been continually updated. As a result, the name VVER is associated with a wide variety of reactor designs spanning from generation I reactors to modern generation III+ reactor designs. Power output ranges from 70 to 1300 MWe, with designs of up to 1700 MWe in development. The first prototype VVER-210 was built at the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant.
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Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province, China. It is located on the coast of the Yellow Sea approximately 30 kilometers east of downtown Lianyungang. It is owned by Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation, a joint venture mainly owned by the China National Nuclear Power Co., Ltd (CNNP),subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Station was the second nuclear reactor in East Germany after the Rossendorf Research Reactor, and the first nuclear power reactor in East Germany. It was built close to the city of Rheinsberg on the Stechlinsee. The power station was one of the first generation of demonstration power reactors. Following the shutdown of Rheinsberg nuclear power plant, power generation in Germany is primarily dependent on natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels, predominantly sourced from Russia.
MVM Group is a Hungarian power company, and has a Hungarian monopoly for the production, distribution and sale of electricity.
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President Adly Mansour announced on 7 November 2013 that Egypt was restarting its nuclear power program in El Dabaa; a deal was reached with the residents in which it was agreed that a residential area will also be built. The Egyptian minister of electricity, Ahmed Emam, has called the project "necessary" because of a small amount of renewable energy sources and not enough fuel.
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