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Paks II: Hungarian government violates EU law by continued funding – Energiaklub Climate Policy Institute has initiated a legality supervision procedure in court

The Energiaklub Climate Policy Institute has requested the Registry Court of the Szekszárd Regional Court to conduct a legality supervision procedure concerning the nearly HUF 80 billion capital increase of Paks II Nuclear Power Plant Private Limited Company, registered in December 2025. In Energiaklub’s view, the capital increase may violate EU law as it may…

Nuclear Power Plant Paks II: The nuclear industry had a party today, with UN agency IAEA’s Grossi und Rosatom’s Likhachev

The occasion for the guests coming together at the construction pits of the Paks 5&6 nuclear reactors was the official construction start. At second glance this is not so much a reason for celebrations, because 2025 was the year Paks 5 was supposed to celebrate start of operations, not construction start. Also present: IAEA General…

The EU Court strikes down state aid for Paks II

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) annulled the European Commission’s authorization allowing Hungary to grant state aid for the construction of Paks II in September 2025. For the project to continue, the Commission most likely will conduct a new state aid notification procedure;  this time round the failure of carrying out a…

NPP Paks site: risk of flooding?

Heavy rainfall brought by storm “Boris” has left devastating marks on central Europe in September 2024. The storm caused extreme flooding, and the region around the Paks nuclear power plant in central Hungary was also affected by high water levels. Expert Oda Becker reviewed the flood risk for Paks. She concluded that even though the…

NPP Paks allowed to heat up the Danube

A draft legislation, published on 27 July 2024, would significantly change the conditions for operating the Paks nuclear power plant: while previously there were clear limits on the extent to which the plant could heat up the Danube, in future this could be overridden any time by a ministerial decision. According to the Energiaklub Policy…

NPP Paks in Hungary

Paks II is one of the most controversial new nuclear power plant construction projects in the EU. Apart from the general problems of nuclear energy utilisation (lack of economic efficiency, risk of accidents, unresolved nuclear waste disposal, etc.), the availability of balanced information for the public is not sufficient, especially in Hungary, also due to…

“Russian Grip on EU Nuclear Power” – updated study

An update of Patricia Lorenz’s study “Russian Grip on EU Nuclear Power” was commissioned by the Viennese Environmental Ombudsman and “Cities for a Nuclear Free Europe” (CNFE). The study analyses the European nuclear sector’s dependency on Russia. In particular, it also analyses possible EU strategies to reduce this dependency. The EU has not come any…

Energiaklub’s interview with Finnish regulator STUK

Joint Project partner Energiaklub published a series on interviews and infographics on the following topics: Interview with Director General Petteri Tiippana from Finnish regulator STUK (Finland wanted to construct the same reactor type as for Paks 2 but – in contrary to Hungary – abandoned the project shortly after Russia started the War on Ukraine)…

Alarming results on geological risk at the Paks NPP site

The results of the peer reviewed report “NPP Paks II: Paleo-seismological assessment of the Siting Report and the Site License with respect to fault capability” showed that evidence for a capable fault at the site was swept under the carpet. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) guidelines, the Western European Nuclear Regulator’s Association…