The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade recalled that the largest nuclear investment in Europe is taking place in Paks, and that there are certain milestones of utmost importance in all similar construction projects, such as the arrival of long-lead items. The core-catcher of Unit 5 arrived by sea from Russia on Thursday.

This equipment will serve the safety of the nuclear power plant and will be located directly under the reactor vessel, Péter Szijjártó said. The dimensions of the device are also remarkable, with a maximum diameter of 11 meters, a height of more than 15 meters and a weight of more than 730 tonnes. – This equals to the weight of around fifteen Airbus A320 aircraft in total – the minister said.

Péter Szijjártó highlighted that the production process was continuously monitored by Hungarian experts and the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority’s representatives in order to ensure that the safest and best possible equipment was produced. The handover took place on 29 March, but not only the production but also the delivery took a long time.

– Typically, an international project involves international transport and this wasn't an exception. The transport was organized by an Austrian company, and the core-catcher trap arrived in Paks on a Slovakian ship after a total of 3200 kilometers of water transport, which took 42 days, and the core-catcher and its equipment had to be loaded several times in the Black Sea and the Danube – the Minister explained.

– Our specialists are now taking over the core-catcher, and the construction itself is in full swing so that the new units of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant can be operational from the beginning of the next decade, hence improving the security of Hungary's energy supply and helping us to preserve the achievements of the overhead reduction in the long run – Péter Szijjártó concluded.