In January 2014 the Hungarian Government announced that it reached an agreement with the government of Russia concerning the construction of two new reactors to replace current capacity at the Paks nuclear power plant. Paks I. is a Soviet-built plant operational since 1983-1987. It is the only nuclear power plant in the country and provides about 40% of Hungarian electricity consumption. With an estimated budget of 3-4 trillion Hungarian forint (9-13 billion euros), the project will be the single largest investment in Hungary in the next decade. The investment will be financed with credit provided by the Russian government.
The CRCB’s study analyzes the corruption risks of the planned Paks nuclear power plant investment based on relevant economic theory and empirical results, and summarizes lessons learned from similar Hungarian and foreign investments. We also estime social and corruption-related losses expected during the project.
The research was financed by the Energiaklub Climate Policy Institute Applied Communications (http://www.energiaklub.hu/en) .