{"id":1582,"date":"2026-07-12T08:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energianucleare.eu\/paks-ii-a-23-metre-pit-for-a-330-tonne-reactor\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T08:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:22:23","slug":"paks-ii-a-23-metre-pit-for-a-330-tonne-reactor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energianucleare.eu\/en\/paks-ii-a-23-metre-pit-for-a-330-tonne-reactor\/","title":{"rendered":"Paks II: a 23-metre pit for a 330-tonne reactor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At <strong>Paks II<\/strong>, on the Danube 100 kilometres south of Budapest, one of Europe&#8217;s largest nuclear construction sites is taking shape. The excavation for Unit 6 measures 150 metres wide, 190 metres long and reaches 23 metres down \u2014 deep enough to swallow a seven-storey building. Getting there requires moving around 500,000 cubic metres of earth, and according to official project updates, more than half has already been removed.<\/p>\n<p>Unit 5 is further along. The <strong>first concrete pour<\/strong> took place on 5 February 2026, a milestone that automatically triggered the International Atomic Energy Agency&#8217;s &#8216;under construction&#8217; classification. The foundation slab will require 43,000 cubic metres of concrete and 9,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel. Pouring operations will continue without interruption through the end of 2026. For Unit 6, alongside the excavation work, anchored secant pile walls are being installed together with a geodetic and geotechnical monitoring system that continuously tracks ground conditions during construction.<\/p>\n<p>The component at the heart of the entire project is not manufactured on site. The <strong>reactor pressure vessel<\/strong> \u2014 the steel container enclosing the nuclear fuel, coolant and the reaction itself \u2014 starts life as roughly 600 tonnes of raw billets processed in one of Europe&#8217;s largest automated forging presses, in St Petersburg, where rings and the domed bottom head are shaped under a force exceeding 13,000 tonnes. The finished product weighs around 330 tonnes, stands over 11 metres tall, measures 4.5 metres in diameter and has walls up to 285 millimetres thick. It is designed to operate for at least 60 years, with construction features that could allow use up to 100 years. Forging of the vessel components for Unit 6 began in April 2025 at Rosatom&#8217;s <strong>AEM-Spetsstal<\/strong> facility.<\/p>\n<p>The two new reactors are <strong>VVER-1200<\/strong> third-generation units, each rated at 1,200 megawatts gross \u2014 more than double the output of the older VVER-440s already operating at Paks, which have been uprated over time to around 500 megawatts each. The four existing reactors, which entered service between 1982 and 1987, generated 47.1% of Hungary&#8217;s domestic electricity in 2024. Hungary does not treat Paks as a secondary energy asset: it is the backbone of its power grid. Paks II is also the first Russian nuclear construction project to get under way inside a European Union member state, and continues to progress despite the complex geopolitical backdrop since 2022. The overall project cost is set at \u20ac12.5 billion, 80% of which is financed by a \u20ac10 billion Russian state loan.<\/p>\n<p>Hungarian Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 has stated that Paks II will enable Hungary to cover roughly <strong>70% of national electricity demand with nuclear power<\/strong>, a target expected to be reached in the early 2030s. The chosen model \u2014 proven technology, pressurised water reactor, industrial scale \u2014 is the same already deployed in Turkey, where the world&#8217;s most powerful crawler crane lowered a 350-tonne vessel through an opening in the roof before the dome was sealed. Something similar will play out at Paks, once the foundations are complete and the reactor is ready for river transport along the Danube. Production of the first turbine components for Unit 5 has already begun at <strong>Arabelle Solutions<\/strong> in Belfort, France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Construction at Hungary&#8217;s Paks II nuclear plant is advancing rapidly: the excavation for Unit 6 spans 150 metres wide, 190 metres long and 23 metres deep, while the first concrete pour for Unit 5, completed in February 2026, has officially triggered IAEA &#8216;under construction&#8217; status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":1579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,122],"tags":[129,131],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reactor-technology","category-reactors","tag-energy-security","tag-energy-transition"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Paks II: a 23-metre pit for a 330-tonne reactor - Energia nucleare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paks II: 23-metre excavation for Unit 6 VVER-1200 reactor. 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