Responding to a journalist’s question at a joint press conference with his Czech colleague, Jan Lipavsky, the head of the ministry reported that the zone melt trap has already been completed and will be delivered to Hungary in the summer, exceeding previous expectations.
“The operation itself will not be a one-time operation, as the weight of the equipment is the same as that of sixteen Airbus passenger carriers,” the minister explained.
In addition, he called it good news and a real milestone from the point of view of the Paks expansion that yesterday the production of the other nuclear equipment with a long production time, the reactor tank, also started in St. Petersburg.
“The reactor tank is the part of the nuclear power plant where the chain reaction takes place, so it is the heart of the power plant, and production started yesterday in one of Europe’s largest automated forge plants in St. Petersburg,” he said.
“This is a huge device, it is 11 meters high, 4.5 meters in diameter, the wall thickness is 30 cm and it will weigh 330 tons, the weight of the castings is 600 tons, so it is a huge job. The device itself is formed under a pressure of 12,000 tons, it must be functional for at least 60 years at 330 degrees Celsius and under a pressure of 162 bar,” added Péter Szijjártó.
According to the minister, this also proves that the works are progressing according to schedule with the investment in Paks in order to be able to connect both new blocks to the network at the beginning of the next decade.
He underlined: with this, Hungary will take a huge step in the security of its energy supply.
Tags: Production Paks reactor vessel begun Petersburg
