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Paks

City, Country
Paks/Tolna, Hungary

Number & type of Reactors
4 X VVER 440/213

Net Electric Power as % in 92 of national total
43%

Major population Centers in a 150 km radius and
total estimated population of 150 km r. region

10 million - including Budapest, Gyor, Pecs, Szeged, parts of Croatia, Romania, and Serbia

Date of commercial operation start up
or (if unfinished) date of construction start.

1980

Operator/Builder
Paks Limited, part of MVM Limited - operator. To be privatized


Accidents and Dangers:

Construction of the control room is unsatisfactory. The plant suffers from electric disorders and problems with recirculation pumps. The plant has recently been proved to be located in a earthquake area.


Local Contact Group:

Ada Ámon or Krisztian Lugosi, Energy Klub,
Postbox 411
H-1519 Budapest,
HUNGARY
tel/fax 36 (1) 166 8866;
e-mail: lugo@nuke.zpok.hu


Key Arguments/History

Produces 43% of the total Hungarian electricity supply, making the entire Hungarian grid vulnerable to disruption. There is no plan for waste disposal or decommissioning, which was sent to Russia before the collapse of the Soviet Union. A desperate search has now started for a domestic high-level waste dump.

The nuclear industry argues that Paks is one of the safest plants in the world, and since Paks has performed better than most nuclear plants in the world - this confuses performance with safety. The surviving 2 Chernobyl reactors have some of the best operating statistics for the last few years, yet few consider them safe. And as for industry claims about safety, the IAEA claimed Chernobyl was a model plant just several months before the meltdown at reactor 4. PAKS has the same safety problems as other VVER 440 plants, notably the lack of a full containment, a slow and unreliable scram system, susceptibilty to neutron embrittlement of the reactor pressure vessel, and inadequate emergency protection systems.


Alternatives:

Possibilities to substitute for Paks output are limited. There are plans to construct 900MW gas capacity, 800MW coal-fired capacity, 400MW lignite capacity, and 200MW oil fired capacity. Given the terrible state of energy efficiency in Hungary, the real alternatives are in more efficient use of energy.


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