The minister says that sanctions against nuclear energy will harm Hungary’s interests – #minister #sanctions #nuclear #energy #harm #Hungarys #interests
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday that nuclear sanctions against Russia will harm Hungary’s interests and European Union should not be nominated by
Hungary, which gets most of its energy from Russia, plans to expand the Paks nuclear power plant by building two VVER reactors, each with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, in addition to the four reactors currently in operation.
He opposed the inclusion of nuclear energy in EU sanctions against Russia.
EU diplomats said that the bloc 10is close to a package of sanctions, and EU governments hope to reach a deal on Wednesday if they can overcome differences over a ban on Russian rubber and diamond imports.
According to diplomats, the package will not include sanctions on Russia’s nuclear energy sector and the listing of Rosatom because France a few like Europe his country buys uranium from Russia for its reactors.
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Hungary’s significantly delayed 12.5 billion euro (13.29 billion dollars) nuclear project was awarded to Rosatom without a tender in 2014, and Szijjarto said Hungary lobbied hard to prevent both the company and its officials from being subject to EU sanctions.
“We had to act by force against Rosatom or a list of Rosatom officials,” Szijjarto said. “Any sanctions related to nuclear energy or Rosatom are Hungary’s main national will harm their interests”.
If completed, the two new reactors will increase Paks’ share of Hungary’s electricity demand from the current one-third to 70%, Szijjarto said, adding that the project is an important part of Hungary’s long-term energy security.
He reiterated his criticism of the German government, which he said had blocked cooperation between Siemens Energy and French nuclear company Framatome in supplying control systems for the new reactors due to opposition from the two ministers.
At its annual shareholder meeting this month, Siemens Energy confirmed that Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control has yet to make a decision on its application for an export license for deliveries to Hungary.
The German Economy Ministry later declined to comment.
($1 = 0.9406 euros)
Reporting by Gergely Szakacs Editing by Jason Hovet, Jason Neely and Alison Williams
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2023-02-22 16:42:23
Source – reuters
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