Paks Nuclear Power Plant: Over 16,000 GWH of Electricity in 2025

MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. generated 16,097.9 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2025, which, despite four major repairs carried out during the year, is the second highest production result in the plant's history, the nuclear power plant told MTI on Friday.

The announcement recalled that at the end of 2015, the nuclear power plant introduced 15-month operation, meaning that fuel replacement is now performed every 15 months instead of every 12 months. In the past period, the measure has increased the amount of electricity generated by about 5 percent per year and reduced the number of spent fuel assemblies, which are considered high-level waste, by 13%. The innovation award-winning conversion, developed by the power plant's reactor physicists, uses higher-enriched, second-generation fuel assemblies and has also yielded significant results at the national economic level, they wrote.

According to their statement, under the previous 12-month operating cycle, all four units were shut down for major repairs every year. The four units have a 60-month (five-year) operating cycle, which means that for four units, this translates into only three shutdowns in four consecutive years, followed by four shutdowns every fifth year.

The number of restarts and shutdowns per total operating time has thus decreased by 20% and the wear and tear of system components, dismantling and pressure testing has been reduced, which has a positive impact on their expected service life. This contributes significantly to further extending the operating time.

It was reported that the nuclear power plant has a larger fuel stock than required by law and has signed contracts with Framatome-TVEL and Westinghouse Electric Company to make fuel procurement more secure.

According to the announcement, work on the further extension of the operating life (TÜH) is progressing according to preliminary plans: thanks to the good pace of preparation of the technical documentation, the development of the TÜH Implementation Program will begin in 2026. By the end of 2025, the environmental assessment programs will be completed, the environmental impact study will have begun, and the technical preparation and procurement of container storage solutions for the management of surplus spent fuel elements will have commenced.