Hungary mulls plans to build new nuclear blocks

Hungary is mulling plans to build new blocks at its sole nuclear power plant in Paks, south of Budapest, to satisfy domestic demand for electricity after 2030, business daily Vilaggazdasag said on Thursday.

Hungary's new energy strategy up to 2030 envisages extending the lifespan of the four existing blocks and constructing two new blocks.

As the service life of the four units will in any case expire between 2030 and 2040, blocks 5 and 6 will not generate extra power but make up for the output of the phased-out blocks.

Pál Kovács, deputy state secretary of energy, is planning what to do after 2030, and is considering inserting the option of building new blocks at Paks in the 2015 strategy.

"Hungary has no alternative but to expand its nuclear power plant capacity," Kovacs told a recent conference organised by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Arguing in favour of nuclear energy, he said that increasingly limited access to fossil energy sources would massively boost prices at the same time as climate policy requirements tighten. Although Hungary promotes the use of renewable energy resources, their production capacities are rather limited, he said.

The Paks plant, in service since the early 1980s, meets about 40 percent of Hungary's demand for electricity.