Rosatom Chief Defends Paks II Timeline at IAEA Conference as Magyar Government Reviews Deal

On the sidelines of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna around September 14–15, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev said 2026 construction milestones on the Paks II nuclear expansion remained on schedule — Unit 5's foundation slab (started February) nearly complete, Unit 6 preparatory work commencing, and French-made turbine components already in production — and that the plant's design accounts for the low-Danube-water conditions seen during summer 2026's drought. Likhachev said Rosatom stood ready for dialogue with Budapest 'at any format, including government leadership level' and awaited concrete proposals. The remarks come as PM Péter Magyar's government runs a comprehensive due-diligence review of the €12.5B project awarded without tender to Rosatom in 2014; Magyar has warned total costs could double and flagged major delays, noting roughly 1 trillion forints (€2.7B) spent to date with only excavation work substantially complete. The modified 2026 budget allocates 206.6 billion forints (€563M) to the project this year.