Hungary operates just one nuclear power plant--four VVER-440 Model V213s at Paks on the Danube River--but it gets about 44 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy. Paks, like most of the country's thermal power stations, is part of the network of the Hungarian Power Co. (MVM)--the national utility. Within this network, coal-fired power plants generate nearly 26 percent of the country's electricity, and oil and gas about 26 percent. Self-producers account for the remaining 4 percent.
Before the Communists lost power, Hungary had planned to build two additional units at the Paks site. In 1989, however, MVM canceled its order for the VVER-1000 units from the Soviet Union and expressed an interest in Western-made units for the site.
Among the organizations that approached MVM were a consortium led by Electricité de France, a Soviet-Finnish consortium, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Germany's PreussenElektra and Siemens, and a consortium that included Westinghouse and Bechtel. MVM and Paks plant management were reportedly told that they could talk with Western companies about new nuclear units but could make no contractual arrangements until Hungary's government and parliament agreed on an energy policy.
A long-term energy plan developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade foresees no construction of a nuclear plant before 2010, but the plan has not yet been approved by Hungary's parliament.
In July 1995, Hungarian trade and energy officials were reported to be negotiating with Westinghouse Corp. on the possible construction of an advanced reactor based on Westinghouse's AP-600 plant.
The Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission initiated the drafting of a new nuclear law in November 1995 that would replace the 1980 law now in force. Under the current law, the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority is responsible for nuclear safety licensing and, on the basis of such licensing, the Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission issues licenses for the construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
The new law grants all licensing authority to the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority. In addition, the new law addresses the handling of radioactive materials, including the storage and disposal of spent fuel, and requires that the cost of nuclear plant decommissioning and spent fuel disposal be accumulated during the plant's operation. Under the draft law, decommissioning costs would come from the addition of a small charge to electricity rates.
The draft law also spells out the series of licenses required for the construction and commissioning of a nuclear power plant.
According to a government official responsible for energy matters, the country's electricity needs can be met during the 1990s with small gas-fired combustion turbines. Hungary will not need new baseload plants--nuclear or coal-fired--until early in the next century.
In 1993, the MVM board of directors mapped out a 10-year electricity generating strategy that included improvements to thermal plants, the construction of natural gas-fired combined-cycle plants and a coal-fired fluidized bed plant, and site studies for a new nuclear plant on the Danube River.
Utility Operations. As the country moves toward a market economy, MVM is being restructured. Responsible for electricity generation, high-voltage transmission and distribution, MVM became a shareholder company Jan. 1, 1992, although the government held all the shares.
In addition to the holding company--MVM Ltd.--the restructured industry consists of eight generating corporations, six regional distribution corporations and one transmission system corporation. In April 1994, the Hungarian parliament adopted a new electricity law, clearing the way for the planned sale of MVM's subsidiaries. According to MVM, up to 100 percent of the non-nuclear electricity production and distribution companies would be sold, with the government retaining control of the power distribution grid and the Paks nuclear plant.
In September 1995, the government issued a formal tender notice for the sale of up to 24 percent of MVM, and for minority shares in six regional electricity distribution companies and seven electricity generation companies. A second round of privatization is scheduled for 1996. In December, the government announced that it was selling its six distribution companies and two of its seven generation companies to German, French and Belgian bidders. However, the government chose not to sell MVM at the price that was offered, and has not decided whether to open a new bidding process.
A consortium of three European companies--Germany's Bayernwerk and PreussenElektra, and Electricité de France International--was formed recently with the aim of connecting the Hungarian electricity grid to the Western European grid. Hungary joined UCPTE--the West European grid--on a trial basis in October 1995, and will official join UCPTE in 1996.
Until 1991, nuclear safety licensing and inspection were carried out by the State Inspectorate of Energetics and Energy Safety's Nuclear Safety Inspectorate Department. The state inspectorate is part of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which oversees electricity production and power plant operation.
New Responsibilities. In 1991, Hungary reorganized governmental regulation of nuclear power, making the Nuclear Safety Inspectorate part of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority. The authority, which serves as the operating body of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission, is responsible for overseeing nuclear safety at operating nuclear power units and for licensing plant operators. The authority employs about 10 resident inspectors at Paks. The industry and trade minister serves as the president of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission.
The commission signed an agreement in 1990 with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on cooperation and the exchange of information. It is now revising the requirements for nuclear power plant design, manufacture, construction and operation to bring them into line with IAEA recommendations and Western regulations.
Public Safety Measures. In 1987, Hungary's Presidential Council issued a decree amending the country's 1980 Nuclear Power Act to provide protection of the public and environment against ionizing radiation from any source, not just domestic, and to put responsibility for protective measures against radioactive pollution in the hands of the Council of Ministers.
In 1990, the Hungarian government set up a national system for dealing with nuclear events, both domestic and foreign, that affect Hungarian territory. Earlier measures were concentrated only on Paks.
Hungary has drafted a new atomic energy law that incorporates the basic principles of the Vienna Convention. The draft law, issued in November 1995, limits liability for nuclear damages and channels it to the licensed operator of the facility at which an accident occurs. A final version of the law is expected in 1996.
Hungary is a party to the Vienna Convention, which ensures that the responsibility for damage caused by a nuclear accident is channeled to the plant operator. The country is also a party to the 1988 Joint Protocol on Civil Law Liability and Compensation for Cross-Boundary Damage from Nuclear Accident, which resolves potential conflicts between the Paris Convention--which covers 14 European countries--and the Vienna Convention--which has worldwide coverage.
Supply of Fuel. In 1993, Hungary signed a two-year contract with Russia's Tekhsnabeksport for the supply of fuel. According to a March 1994 report, Germany had offered to give Hungary's Paks plant 235 slightly irradiated fuel assemblies from the closed Greifswald plant in eastern Germany. The fuel was expected to be delivered to Paks in the first half of 1996. In January 1996, Greenpeace activists blocked the train tracks from the Greifswald plant to prevent the fuel being transported to Paks.
Hungary's current contract with Russia for fuel supply runs until 1999. Under new legislation, the Paks plant must create a two-year fuel reserve, and must begin purchasing new fuel in 1996.
Spent Fuel Storage and Disposal. In the past, spent fuel from the Paks plant was sent to Russia for reprocessing. But after Russia passed legislation in 1992 prohibiting the import of foreign radioactive waste, Ukraine stopped the transit of spent fuel from Hungary for fear it would not be accepted at the Russian-Ukrainian border. In 1993, Russia's President Yeltsin issued a degree saying that Russia would continue to accept spent fuel from those countries that had such an obligation in their fuel supply contracts with the former Soviet Union.
In 1993, Hungary reached agreement with Ukraine and Russia on shipping spent fuel through Ukrainian territory, but a Russian-Hungarian meeting in Moscow in early 1994 failed to resolve the issue of spent fuel acceptance because there was no obligation to accept spent fuel in Hungary's original agreement with the former Soviet Union. However, in March 1994 Russia signed a protocol with Hungary on the acceptance of spent fuel. At the end of 1994, Russia agreed to accept two trainloads of spent fuel from Hungary in 1995. The first train--carrying 55 metric tons of spent fuel--left the Paks plant for Russia in January 1995.
With storage space in its spent fuel pools running low, and future acceptance of spent fuel by Russia uncertain, the Paks plant awarded a contract to GEC Alsthom Engineering Systems in 1992 for the construction of a modular vault dry storage system. The Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission issued a license in February 1995 for the construction of the facility, and construction began a month later. In an agreement with the Paks local government, the Paks plant will place no spent fuel in the storage facility as long as Russia continues to accept the plant's spent fuel.
A site for a high-level waste repository in the Mecsek mountains is under study.
After the accident at Chernobyl, Hungarian officials accelerated the modernization of their nuclear units already under way. For details of safety-related improvements, see the separate summary of the Paks plant.
Training. Operators at the Paks nuclear plant receive between two and three years of classroom and on-the-job training. Operators also must successfully complete five weeks of simulator training on the plant's full-scope simulator before taking the licensing examination.
Once licensed by the Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission, operators receive a day of refresher training every five weeks and about 80 hours of simulator training every year.
Qualification Upgrading. Following a job and task analysis of control-room operator and field operator positions by the Budapest Technical University in 1991, qualification guidelines for various operator positions are being upgraded.
Since the 1986 Chernobyl accident, Hungary has sought nuclear safety expertise from the West. Among Eastern European countries, it has led the way in forging ties with public- and private-sector organizations.
Safety Expertise. The Hungarian Atomic Energy Commission (HAEC) signed an agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission providing for the exchange of information and cooperation on state supervision of nuclear facilities, analytical safety methods, operational experience, next-generation reactors, life extension, failures and incidents, and treatment and transportation of radioactive waste.
The HAEC also signed an agreement with the French Atomic Energy Commission that covers nuclear safety, radiation protection, radioecology and waste-management research and development.
Technical Services. In 1990, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant Co. and Spain's Tecnatom S.A. began negotiating to establish a joint venture for reactor pressure-vessel inspection services in Eastern Europe. The venture would combine Tecnatom's inspection equipment and expertise with Paks' knowledge of the Soviet-designed VVER-440 pressure vessel.
Foratom Cooperation. Hungary formed a nuclear society in 1990 and indicated its interest in forming a nuclear forum that would permit it to join Foratom, the umbrella group for 14 European nuclear industry forums.
At a joint workshop of the Hungarian and American nuclear societies in April 1991, the groups agreed on a program of cooperation. The workshop itself, devoted to pressurized water reactor safety, included discussions on reactor safety, probabilistic safety analysis, safety features of new designs, and environmental radiation monitoring in Hungary.
Two months later, Foratom's Working Group on Quality Assurance and the Hungarian AEC's Nuclear Safety Inspectorate sponsored a workshop in Budapest on nuclear quality assurance.
WANO Membership. Hungary is a member of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), and personnel from the Paks plant have participated in international exchanges sponsored by WANO. Under a new WANO program launched in 1994, experienced operators conduct peer reviews of plant operations. Paks was the first plant visited by a peer review mission under the pilot phase of this program.
Utility Partnerships. Under a utility partnership program jointly sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Energy Association (an association of public and private energy-related organizations that represents the United States on the World Energy Council), the Hungarian utility MVM is paired with the New England Electric System (NEES). The partnership will focus on three main areas: an engineering, operations and managerial information exchange between NEES and MVM; the organization of regional seminars to be conducted in Eastern Europe for other interested parties; and the transfer of technical information gained from the partnership to other Eastern European utilities.
Cooperative Agreements.. In 1993, Hungary and Slovakia signed an agreement on cooperation in the energy industry that included the offer of Hungarian aid in modernizing and enhancing the safety of Slovak nuclear units. The same year, Hungary's Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a technical cooperation agreement with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. under which AECL will transfer experience on radioactive waste management and, if requested, would provide information on CANDU reactors.
IAEA Training Seminars. Although the International Atomic Energy Agency is known for its inspection missions--including its Assessment of Safety Significant Events Team (ASSET) missions--to nuclear power plants, the agency also conducts ASSET training seminars at a country's request. The seminars are designed to train operators and regulators in the use of the ASSET methodology to identify safety issues, to assess their consequences and to eliminate the root causes of likely future accidents and incidents.
In September 1990, three lecturers from IAEA's ASSET program conducted a seminar in Budapest on training nuclear operators and regulators in the investigative methodology used by ASSET missions, and to train them in incident prevention. An ASSET seminar was also held June 15-19, 1992, at the Paks plant. It focused on extending the assessment of the safety significance of operational issues to all types of nuclear facilities, and it also covered the root-cause analysis method in preparation for the ASSET mission to the plant scheduled for later that year. An ASSET seminar was held at the Paks plant Dec. 6-7, 1994, and another in Budapest June 13-15, 1995.
U.S. Aid. According to Hungarian officials, U.S. reactor safety assistance to Hungary will end in 1995, because the Paks plant is considered to meet Western nuclear safety standards. Since 1991, Hungary has received about $1.5 million, which it has used for scholarships, training, assistance to the country's nuclear safety authority, and analysis of Paks' safety systems.
Hungary was the first Eastern European country to request an IAEA inspection of its nuclear plant. For details of the inspection, see the separate summary of the Paks plant.
January 1996