Museum-ready reactors including approval for unlimited heating of the Danube above 30° Celsius in Hungary

Two new reactors from Russian supplier Rosatom are currently under construction at the site of the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary. The positive EIA decision for the construction project dates back to 2017 and stipulates conditions that are no longer being met.

It is imperative that the EIA procedure be reopened. GLOBAL 2000 has therefore submitted the corresponding application to the Hungarian authorities.

"We have had intensive discussions with many Hungarian NGOs in recent months. They have proposed this application for revocation or resumption and would like to be involved, but consider it too risky under these political circumstances," says Patricia Lorenz, anti-nuclear spokesperson at GLOBAL 2000.

Danube water at spa temperature

By 2024, the environmental impact assessment for the existing Paks I reactors stipulated that the maximum temperature of the Danube had to remain below 30° C after the heated cooling water was discharged at a distance of 500 meters. Otherwise, the power output of the nuclear power plant had to be reduced.

"The Danube temperature at the measuring point is already approaching that of thermal water. The commissioning of Paks II would exacerbate the situation even further. The 2017 environmental impact assessment is therefore more or less meaningless. The effects on the Danube habitat are clearly of no concern to those responsible," Lorenz continues.

However, in order to keep electricity production from the four outdated VVER-440/213 reactors running permanently at the maximum of around 2,000 megawatts, the Hungarian Ministry of Energy set an unlimited warming limit in a new regulation in the summer of 2024 without investigating the consequences for the affected habitat of the Danube.

Now that the 30°C limit has also been set for the reactors under construction, the present EIA approval can no longer be taken seriously - the water in the Danube is already above the actually defined upper temperature limit.

Dangerous museum pieces

The existing reactors at Paks I reached their "end of service" a long time ago, but the Hungarian government has already planned the second lifetime extension. The authorities are shying away from the Hungarian public here and only carried out the EIA process in 2024 with selected authorities and municipalities in the vicinity of Paks. The timing of this EIA is extremely early, as the current lifetime extension is valid until 2037, when all four units of Paks I will have already exceeded their planned lifetime of 30 years by 20 years.

The main EIA procedure for another 20 years for the four VVER-440 units of Paks I is expected as early as this spring. The Austrian public will also be able to participate.

"We are talking about a total lifetime of an incredible 70 years. We are talking about the operation of obsolete Soviet reactors until 2057 and the construction of two more Russian units at one site. In addition to the radiological risks, massive damage to the Danube is planned due to unlimited water heating. We must prevent this," Lorenz warns in conclusion.