Paks

Preparations are done today for an investment that will determine the fate of Hungary’s energy sector for decades. The public can know almost nothing about the details of the project for constructing new blocks to the Paks nuclear power plant.

The management of the MVM Group established a work group during the summer of 2007 with the aim to facilitate the construction of one or more nuclear power plant blocks in Paks. Their work was named Teller project, it was finished at the end of 2008. The tasks of the work group included investigating the possibilities for implementation, preparing a preliminary environmental assessment, investigating the placement of spent fuel elements and radioactive waste, as well as preparing communications. Furthermore, expert papers were prepared analysing technical, economic, commercial, legal and social aspects of the expansion.

A few months later, on 30 March 2009 the Parliament approved the initiation of activities for the preparation of one or more new blocks with a 95.4% rate. The resolution was, by the way, made on the basis of a 1.5 page explanation lacking any concrete facts regarding the expansion (the words of the resolution and the explanation as well as the criticism of the Energiaklub can be found among the related documents). The parliament’s resolution does not mean an actual decision on establishing one or more new power plant blocks de jure, but it gives political permission for the expansion de facto. One of the articles for our investigative journalism contest (titled “The Paks expansion was accepted with blind eyes”) covers the circumstances of the decision in detail.

According to the Energiaklub, this decision was a grave infringement of rights, so in June 2009 the organisation turned to the Constitutional Court and the ombudsman for future generations to abrogate the resolution and propose the amendment of the Act CXVI of 1996 on nuclear energy (see detailed arguments in the attached document). The ombudsman launched an investigation. The Constitutional Court, however, based on an earlier decision regarded the issue in question as an individual case, and did not substantially deal with the submission.

The Energiaklub wrote an open letter before the parliamentary decision to the then presiding prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, in which it protested against the planned expansion. The letter listed alternatives as well: “We need a new energy policy, the key to which lies in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. The government is primarily responsible for the security of energy supply, it is not the government’s task to build new power plants.”

After the theoretical approval of the parliament, the Energiaklub wanted to get to know the data of the Teller project on the grounds that they are of public utility. The data request was denied by both the MVM and the Paks NPP. Following this, the Energiaklub turned to the court, with a recent (27 April, 2011) success: 100% of the requested documents have to be desclosed and made public!.

Following the decision of the parliament, in July 2009 the power plant launched the Lévai project with the owner, the MVM Zrt. The aim of the project is to perform tasks to determine how the contents of the parliamentary resolution can be implemented. The Energiaklub submitted another request for data in January 2011, this time for information related to the Lévai project, to no avail. The MVM denied disclosing the documents. The Energiaklub filed for legal action in this matter as well.

The MVM has officially been dealing with the expansion issue since 2007, and the parliament made a resolution about commencing preparations in 2009, and news have been about developments since. Even the events at Japan’s Fukushima power plant are not hindering these efforts. But the public is still kept in the dark regarding the details.