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BUDAPEST, November 7. /TASS/. Hungary and the United States will enter into a nuclear energy cooperation agreement that will provide for the supply of American nuclear fuel for the Paks nuclear power plant (NPP) in addition to Russian fuel, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said as he is accompanying Prime Minister Viktor Orban on his visit to Washington. Cooperation with the US will also include the use of American technology to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Hungary, and the construction of small modular reactors, the minister noted. "We have reached an agreement on those three issues, and on Friday we will sign with my colleague, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a major intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the area of nuclear energy," Szijjarto said. His statement was reported by the M1 TV channel. "Thus, in addition to existing relationships with suppliers, we will purchase American nuclear fuel elements for the first time in the history of the Hungarian energy sector. Furthermore, it is important to ensure the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel so that it does not harm the environment or human health. We will purchase the most modern American technologies to ensure that spent fuel from the Paks nuclear power plant can be transported for safe storage," he explained. "This gives Hungarian-American cooperation a completely new dimension - nuclear," the minister said, adding that this will be "one of the most important agreements" on the docket during Orban’s visit to Washington. Earlier, Szijjarto said that Hungary had begun negotiations with Westinghouse on the supply of American nuclear fuel for the Paks NPP within 3-4 years. Currently, the station uses only purely Russian nuclear fuel. Starting 2028, a joint venture set up by TVEL (a Rosatom entity) and France’s Framatome will begin supplying fuel elements there. At the same time, the minister emphasized that the process of diversifying supplies did not mean abandoning cooperation with proven partners, in this case Rosatom, whose project is underway to build the second stage of the station in Paks.
