22 Jan (NucNet): Austria announced today that it plans to sue the European Commission at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for allowing Hungary to expand its Paks nuclear power station.
In a statement on its website the Austrian Federal Minister for Sustainability, Agriculture and Tourism said the Austrian government will ask the court to annul an EC resolution approving the expansion.
The EC started an investigation into state aid given to the Paks 2 project in November 2014. Last March it approved the project to build two new reactors, to be financed with the help of Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, after regulators said Hungarian authorities had agreed to several measures to ensure fair competition.
But Austria said today that it would not accept that decision. “We in the government have agreed that there are sufficient reasons to sue,” the statement said. “EU assistance is only permissible when it is built on common interest. For us, nuclear energy is neither a sustainable form of energy supply, nor is it an answer to climate change.”
The two planned units at Paks 2 nuclear power station are expected to begin commercial operation in 2026 and 2027, Attila Aszódi, the Hungarian government’s commissioner for the Paks 2 project, told a conference in Brussels late last year.
An agreement signed in 2014 will see Russia supply two VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors for Paks 2, as well as a loan of up to €10bn ($11.8bn) to finance 80% of the €12bn project.
