Hungary May Terminate Its Contract With Rosatom For The Construction Of A Nuclear Power Plant
- 14.08.2026, 15:45
Peter Magyar raised serious concerns about the project.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has cast doubt on the agreement reached by his predecessor, Viktor Orbán, with the Russian state corporation Rosatom regarding the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. The new Hungarian government is conducting a comprehensive review of the project, including its financing and design, according to Politico. “The plans were approved despite the fact that nuclear power plants that do not operate with a closed-loop cooling system and are so heavily dependent on the environment are no longer being built anywhere in the world,” Magyar said. Several weeks of extreme heat and drought led to record-low water levels in the Danube, resulting in a 10% reduction in electricity generation at Hungary’s Paks Nuclear Power Plant.
The agreement on “Paks-2” was signed even before the war with Ukraine. The project involves the construction of two new reactors. The agreement between Hungary and Russia was signed in Moscow in 2014. Rosatom was awarded the contract to build two power units, and Russia provided Hungary with state financing of up to 10 billion euros. In 2016, Viktor Orbán called the expansion of the nuclear power plant “the deal of the century.”
Earlier, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev stated that the Russian state corporation is continuing construction of the two new reactors on schedule, despite the change in Hungary’s government in April 2026. According to him, concrete work on the fifth power unit is more than 80% complete, work on the sixth unit is continuing, and production of reactor components is already underway. “We are ready for dialogue,” Likhachev said.
According to Mádjár, the Paks-2 nuclear power plant was originally supposed to begin operations in 2024. Instead, Hungary has spent about 2.8 billion euros on a facility that the prime minister described as a few warehouses and two large concrete pits. “I don’t see them actually complying with the terms of the contract,” Madyar said. The Hungarian government is reviewing the project in light of its ties to Russia.