"Paks" - nuclear power plant in Hungary (photo)

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Energy security of any country is ensured by the uninterrupted and reliable operation of various power plants. The attention of not only specialized technical personnel, but also the top leadership of the country is riveted to these objects, since both the economic and social level of development of the state, as well as its safe existence, depend on the normal functioning of electrical energy sources. In this article, we will get acquainted with Paks, a nuclear power plant located in Hungary.

General information

First of all, we must note that this station is the only one that is still operating on the Magyar land. Paks (NPP) is 100 kilometers away from the capital of the country and only 5 kilometers from the city of the same name, with a population of about twenty thousand people. The industrial giant was built according to the design of Soviet engineers, and all of its currently operating reactors are completely of the same type - VVER-440.

Historical background

"Paks" (NPP) began its "life" in August 1974, already quite far from us. It was then that the builders began the construction of the first stage, which included two power units. Throughnine years - in October 1983 - the first block began its work, and a year later the second block was launched.

The construction of the second stage started in 1979, and already in 1986 block number three was put into operation. November 1987 was marked by the connection to the network of block No. 4.

In general, it would be correct to say that Paks (NPP) was the construction site that brought together more than 110 different organizations and enterprises. And they were all international. Leading specialists from such countries as Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary were involved for the supply of equipment, construction itself, carrying out a huge amount of commissioning and installation supervision. Thanks to the efforts of all involved professionals, according to the IAEA, the Paks NPP is recognized as one of the best plants of this type on the entire European continent.

Technical indicators

NPP "Paks" (Hungary) so far has four power units, the capacity of each of which is within 500 MW. The amount of electricity produced by this station is about 40% of the total available in the country.

Each of the blocks consists of the following main nodes:

• Water-water power reactor that runs on thermal neutrons.
• Six steam generators producing up to 450 tons per hour of saturated, dry steam at a pressure of 4.7 MPa.
• Six circulation pumps, the main task of which is to ensure the continuous movement of the coolant.
• Twelve root gate valves that turn off the loops if necessary.
• Two turbine units that directly transform heat energy into electricity.

Reconstruction and modernization

At the end of 2014, a contract was signed between the state corporation Rosatom and the Paks NPP in Hungary for the construction and commissioning of new units. According to the announced information, the total amount of planned investments in this event will be no more than 12.5 billion euros. A few months before the execution of this document, an agreement was drawn up between Russia and Hungary, on the basis of which the Russian Federation was obliged to provide 10 billion euros for the completion of the station as a loan. The actual construction of power units No. 5 and No. 6 will begin in 2018. According to the existing plan, the fifth block will have to be put into operation in 2023, and the sixth - two years later. The capacity of each of the new energy sources will be 1200 MW.

Deal Details

So, Hungary is obliged to start repaying the loan received six months after the units are put into operation. The loan must be repaid in full in 21 years. In this case, the first eleven years of payments, the rate on the loan will not exceed 4%. After that, there will be two increases: first to 4.5%, and later to 4.9%.

Shift to 15-month duty cycle

At the end of 2015, the Hungarian nuclear authority granted permission for the described station to use fuel, the levelthe enrichment of which will already be 4.7%, and not 4.2%, as it was before. Thanks to this, all four units of the energy enterprise will operate in a new cycle of 15 months.

Emergencies

Obviously, there is no need to further explain how dangerous the Paks nuclear power plant is. The accident on it, unfortunately, nevertheless turned out to be inevitable. On April 10, 2003, at the time of the planned repair and restoration work, an episode occurred at the second block, which ultimately took more than three years to eliminate the consequences. The essence of the incident was reduced to the fact that the cladding of fuel assemblies was damaged during their chemical cleaning in a tank specially mounted for this purpose. The work was carried out taking into account the developed technology of AREVA. Fortunately, outside the industrial zone of the station, no excess of the permissible pollution value was recorded. The incident was rated Level 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Disputes and discussions

The Paks-2 NPP project has become quite a serious stumbling block between the European Union and the Hungarian government. As previously reported by the press, the European Commission conducted an in-depth investigation into the state support project to securely ensure the construction of the two newest units at the station. As the Minister of the Hungarian government, Janos Lazar, finally stated, all questions and details on this matter were settled and the obstacles were overcome. According to him, Hungary has taken into account the comments of its European partners and is doing everythingso that the interests of all parties involved in the project are taken into account as much as possible.

By the way, Hungarian environmentalists also tried in every possible way to prevent the implementation of the agreement on the construction of modern blocks. In their opinion, the planned introduction of high capacities will have an extremely negative impact on the country's economy, since the electricity produced in this way will be too expensive and will significantly increase the degree of Hungary's dependence on the Russian Federation, thereby undermining sovereignty.

Scandal

Hungarian Secretary of State Zoltan Kovacs said that the information published by the British newspaper Financial Times about the alleged blocking of the EU contract between Russia and Hungary on the construction of new units at the Paks nuclear power plant is incorrect and does not correspond to the real state of affairs. Moreover, this civil servant demanded that the said popular newspaper of the Foggy Albion print a refutation.

Additional evidence of how close attention is still riveted to the Paks nuclear power plant, the photo of which is posted in the article, can be the daring theft of the station director's laptop. This portable personal computer contained classified corporate information relating to a planned modernization of a nuclear facility. A business executive lost his digital assistant when he drove to a business meeting in the center of Budapest and left the car for a while, leaving his personal belongings inside.

Also, the degree of value of the contract for the construction of blocks for Hungary can also be assessed by the following criterion: the parliament of the state voted by a majority vote to recognize as secret some aspects of the deal with Russia to build a new pair of blocks for thirty years. According to parliamentarians, this step was dictated in order to reliably ensure the protection of national interests and the country's security.

Experience sharing

In the summer of 2015, members of the government delegation, headed by the director of the Paks nuclear power plant, visited the Moscow Atomexpo forum, and more specifically, the stand of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Such a visit was quite understandable, because the construction of the facility in Belarus is similar to the one planned in Hungary.