Hungary to replace Russian with American nuclear fuel with EU help?
The European Commission is ready to help the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary to wean itself off Russian nuclear fuel.
The REPowerEU programme – ending dependency by the end of 2027
The European Commission is not only helping EU countries wean off Russian oil and gas with the recent REPowerEU programme but is also providing technical support to help the Paks nuclear power plant source nuclear fuel from elsewhere instead of Russia, according to an article in the Financial Times on Friday.
As we can read in the article of Mérce, on Wednesday, the European Commission presented its plan to end the EU’s dependency on Russia for energy by the end of 2027. As part of this plan,
the Commission would provide “technical assistance” to member states so that they could buy fuel from sources other than Russia.
The American Westinghouse helps
According to Portfolio.hu, US company Westinghouse told the Financial Times that it is seeking to obtain regulatory approval to supply nuclear fuel to the five EU countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Finland) that have nuclear power plants with a Russian background and therefore have to buy nuclear fuel from TVEL at the moment, which is a company owned by the Russian Rosatom.
Russian fuel supplies are not yet subject to sanctions; however, Russian planes carrying fuel are banned from the EU airspace. What is more, the war in Ukraine has rendered rail transport impossible. Despite this, a Russian aircraft carrying Russian fuel landed in Hungary in early April.
The article in the Financial Times suggests that Slovakia has also been stockpiling from the fuel that came to Hungary.
Paks has already stored enough Russian nuclear fuel
The American newspaper also interviewed the Paks nuclear power plant, which indicated that they are seeking to diversify their nuclear fuel suppliers, although they have stored enough Russian fuel for the long term. The legal obligation is to buy fuel for at least 2 years in advance, and in April, there were two air deliveries from Russia to Paks, so they could replenish their stocks.
Source: Portfolio, Mérce, Financial Times