Paks project company to be sold to state
A project company set up to oversee the expansion of the Paks nuclear power plant is to be sold to the state, a general meeting of Magyar Villamos Művek (MVM) decided yesterday.
The Paks plant is owned by MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned MVM.
Hungarian National Asset Management Company (MNV) will buy the project company, MVM Paks II Atomerőmű Fejlesztő, for more than HUF 10.2 billion ($41.9 million) MVM said. Consultants Deloitte and Ernst and Young calculated the purchase price.
MVM Paks II was established in 2012 with a start-up capital of HUF 9 billion ($37 million).
Paks currently comprises four Russian-supplied VVER-440 pressurized water reactors, which started up between 1982 and 1987. Though originally 440 MWe gross, the units have been upgraded and will be modified further to give 500-510 MWe gross. In 1999, the plant signed a fuel supply contract with TVEL that will run throughout the life of the units, until around 2037.
In early 2014, Hungary and Russia signed a cooperation agreement which included the construction of two new VVER reactors of up to 1200 MWe each at Paks. The first new unit is to be commissioned in 2023, with the second following about two years later. Russia is also to supply fuel for the new units.
Attila Aszodi, the government commissioner in charge of the project, told local reporters yesterday that direct state ownership of MVM Paks II would streamline the decision-making process for the agreement with Russia. Aszodi said separate agreements were being prepared on the conditions for the planning and construction of the units, as well as on their operation and maintenance, the delivery of fuel and the management of used fuel. These agreements would be ready to sign by the end of this year, he said.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
