The announcement of the USD114 million deal came as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and US President Donald Trump held talks in which, Orbán said, they “did not find a single essential issue on which our countries disagreed”.
A memorandum of understanding, the White House said, “signals our intent to start negotiations to facilitate cooperation across the civil nuclear industry, including small modular reactors and spent fuel storage.The United States and Hungary are collaborating to make Budapest a hub of the emerging Central European SMR market, deploying market-leading US nuclear innovation to jumpstart a new transatlantic industry. Hungary signaled it intends to support construction of up to 10 SMRs with a potential value of up to USD20 billion”.
Károly Mátrai, CEO of MVM Group, said: “Our agreement with Westinghouse is a clear response to today’s energy challenges … will make the operation of Paks Nuclear Power Plant safer and more flexible. The diversified fuel procurement reduces external exposures, provides predictability and affordable energy for families and corporate customers.”
Tarik Choho, Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel President, said: “We look forward to delivering Westinghouse VVER fuel to Paks and to work with Hungary on its fuel diversification goals. With this contract, we now serve all VVER operators in Europe and Ukraine, helping them increase their security of supply.”
In the past, fuel for the VVER reactors has been supplied by Russia. However Westinghouse has been increasing its customer base for VVER fuel, including in Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Finland. As part of its diversification strategy Hungary is also due to get VVER-440 fuel supplies from France’s Framatome from 2027.
According to the official government About Hungary news service the US also agreed to exempt Hungary from any energy-related Russian sanctions affecting, or potentially affecting, the Paks II nuclear power plant project.
The Paks plant, 100 kilometres south of Budapest, currently comprises four Russian-supplied VVER-440 pressurised water reactors, which started up between 1982 and 1987.
That plant is set to be expanded with the Paks II project – an inter-governmental agreement was signed in early 2014 for Russian enterprises and their international subcontractors to supply two VVER-1200 reactors at Paks as well as a Russian state loan of up to EUR10.0 billion (USD10.5 billion) to finance 80% of the project. First concrete on the first new unit is expected to be poured in February 2026.
