As reported earlier, the actual work on Paks II. project is going to start with the building of the construction and erection base. To this end, the Russian contractor has started designing the buildings of the construction and erection base necessary for the establishment of the new nuclear units. In view of the fact that according to Hungarian law, the construction of these requires construction licences, Paks II. Ltd. filed two licence applications with the competent authority  Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA) – one for the administrative and amenity buildings and another for the base for hydraulic installation companies – based on the design made by the contractor.

During the licensing procedure, HAEA made some observations and indicated that the licence would be issued on condition that these were appropriately addressed. In view of the fact that there are some observations made by the authority the thorough handling of which requires more time than the administrative time bracket available for the licensing procedure, on 20 December 2017, the Russian contractor asked Paks II. Ltd. to cancel the application of the construction licences for the buildings of the construction and erection base concerned. The project company granted the request. After the design documentation is modified in compliance with the observations made by the authority, the construction licence applications will be filed with the authority again.

The cancellation of the licence applications aims to utterly enforce the principle that all the design documentation of the new nuclear units should be in full compliance with the relevant Hungarian law and design practice, taking into consideration the observations of the authority.