The truth is in the last station: Hungary ignores Rosatom's requests for Paks-2 NPP

The Hungarian authorities are not responding to Rosatom's requests for negotiations on the Paks-2 NPP project, Alexey Likhachev, the head of the state corporation, told Izvestia. He stressed that Rosatom intends to build the station as soon as possible and avoid litigation. However, the Hungarian authorities, in fact, put the project on pause in order to audit it and determine its future fate. Local media reported that the government was exploring a replacement option for Rosatom, but Paks-2's customer, Paks II Zrt, denied this information. At the same time, the station itself is capable, according to Likhachev, of strengthening the country's economic power.

Losses for Hungary

Rosatom currently has no direct dialogue with the Hungarian government regarding the further implementation of the Paks-2 NPP construction project, Alexey Likhachev, the head of the state corporation, told Izvestia.

"We are officially informing the Hungarian government, we have repeatedly informed it about our readiness, about our requests for negotiations, and so far we have not received a response," he stressed.

As a result, there is still uncertainty about the future of this project.

"In the absence of any concrete signals from the Hungarian government, there is now a high probability of both the development of the project with even greater energy and its complete shutdown," said Alexey Likhachev. — Our task, of course, is not to go to the courts and form a space of economic responsibility for our partners there. Our task is to build the station as soon as possible.

Earlier, foreign media reported that the new Hungarian government is allegedly exploring the option of replacing Rosatom in the project. But the Hungarian company Paks II Zrt, the customer of Paks-2, denied information about a possible replacement of Rosatom, the Portfolio newspaper reported.

The company stressed that a comprehensive audit of Paks-2 is currently underway, and a final decision on the investment project has not yet been made. Paks II Zrt also stated that there is "no room for speculation" regarding such a complex project.

The Hungarian Ministry of Economy and Energy stated that the fate of the nuclear power plant would be decided after a large-scale inspection, which would be completed no earlier than the end of 2026. The state corporation has not received any official notification of termination of the contract and sees no legitimate reason for this.

Proper nutrition: Russia expands the geography of nuclear power plants

Prospects were outlined to the President — 50 more international agreements, as well as new facilities in the Urals and Siberia.

At the same time, Rosatom already has a successful track record of defending its interests. Before that, Finnish Fennovoima tried to unilaterally cancel the contract for the Hanhikivi-1 NPP, and eventually lost. In October, the International Arbitration Court sided with Rosatom. The amount of compensation will be determined later, but the Russian side demands to recover about € 3 billion.

According to Geza Uyheyi, ex-CEO of the Dunamenti Eromu power plant and participant in the construction of the Paks NPP, termination of the contract may result in irretrievable losses of up to €3 billion for Hungary. He stressed that it was impossible to attract another supplier to complete the project, since Paks-2 was designed exclusively for Rosatom technologies.

It will be extremely difficult for a third-party contractor to pick up Paks-2 due to the time spent studying documentation and renegotiating contracts, Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, explained to Izvestia.

Moreover, Rosatom is the only corporation in the world in the nuclear industry that can provide a full cycle of work, from design to decommissioning. Other companies specialize in individual segments or other types of reactors — for example, the American Westinghouse supplies fuel for different types of plants and develops its own reactor designs, but does not build plants under someone else's Russian VVER design. Therefore, in the case of a replacement, Budapest will have to hire a team of disparate players, Yushkov explained.

Will Hungary decide to terminate the contract

Today, the only nuclear power plant in Hungary is Paks, which was built back in the 20th century with the active participation of the USSR. It consists of four power units with VVER-440 reactors. The station provides 45% of the electricity generated and 36% of the electricity consumed in Hungary.

In 2014, during Viktor Orban's premiership, Moscow and Budapest signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of new Paks-2 NPP power units. The official transition to the Paks-2 construction stage took place in February 2026, when the ceremony of pouring the first concrete into the foundation of the new power unit No. 5 was held. According to the design plans, the facility should consist of two power units with VVER-1200 reactors, the launch of which was previously announced for the first half of the 2030s.

—It [Paks-2] will turn Hungary into a very serious active player and greatly strengthen the economic power of the country itself,— Alexey Likhachev emphasized.

To put it as it is: Hungary will keep projects with Russia

What is behind the aggressive actions of Budapest and the statements of the new government of the country

Although the Hungarian economy is not currently experiencing a critical energy shortage, the project of a new nuclear power plant is of strategic importance for the country, Artem Ilyinsky, a junior researcher at the Department of European Policy Studies at the IMEMO RAS, said in a conversation with Izvestia. According to him, the station can become a reliable safety cushion for the country's energy system, especially given Budapest's plans to abandon Russian gas supplies by 2027.

On October 12, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reported that, according to incoming information, the leadership of the European Commission had become the main customer of the information campaign launched in Europe against Rosatom and the construction of the Paks-2 nuclear power plant in Hungary with its participation.

Budapest has officially refrained from making statements so far, and the ongoing audit of the project fits into the general policy of the new leadership.: The authorities are checking all major transactions and government orders of the former government of Viktor Orban to make them more transparent. The same has already been done, for example, with large defense contracts, noted Artem Ilyinsky.

Hungary may face significant consequences in the event of unilateral termination of the contract. Against the background of the country's current budget deficit, which is planned to be reduced from 8.3% to 4.9% in 2027, additional multibillion-dollar fines for disrupting the project would be an unbearable burden for the treasury. In this scenario, Peter Magyar's government may eventually try to avoid repeating Finland's mistakes and act more rationally based on the audit results.