“Hungary will do its best to secure 40% of local content as agreed between the parties,” said János Süli, Minister for Design, Construction and Commissioning of Paks II. “This matter is handled by the state secretary who is also responsible for informing and consulting potential vendors and contractors from Hungary.”
Rosatom also lays stress on local content, said Kirill Komarov, Rosatom’s First Deputy CEO for Corporate Development and International Business. “We expect broad and active involvement of Hungarian and other European companies in the project. There will be much teamwork, and the foundation for it has been laid,” he said.
The target level of local content in the Paks II construction project is based on its technical specifics and competencies of Hungarian companies. The local contribution will be larger in certain operations, such as construction and installation.
Contracts to be tendered out soon
The project is gaining momentum. The work is ongoing to develop technical documents, prepare submissions for design and construction licenses, and establish contacts with suppliers. Rosatom is accumulating license documents to submit them to the customer. The regulator will receive them no later than in July 2018. “Our cooperation with Hungarian partners is efficient at every level,” Kirill Komarov noted.
Next year Rosatom plans to tender out at least 15 contracts for products and services worth nearly 2 billion US dollars. A supplier of machinery for the turbine island is expected to be announced by the end of this year. Two tender bids have been received so far, from Power Machines (Russia) and a consortium formed by Alstom Power Systems and the Hungarian subsidiary of General Electric.
In compliance with EU rules
All procurements for Paks II are fully transparent and meet EU standards. Information about new tenders is published on dedicated websites and in national and international media. For instance, the tender for turbine island equipment was published on 10 websites, and there were over 20 news releases in the media. All in all, about 15 thousand companies, including 500 foreign suppliers, take part in Rosatom’s nuclear plant construction projects. The Russian nuclear corporation expects the number of local suppliers to grow.
According to expert estimates, the Hungarian economy will receive 40–60 billion US dollars over 60 years of Paks II operation. Each dollar invested in the project will pay almost 2 dollars to local equipment suppliers, add 4.3 dollars to the Hungarian GDP, and bring 1.5 dollars in government taxes.
A smart town of Paks
2018–2027 will be an active construction phase. About 7,000 people will move into the region during this period. According to State Secretary Atilla Becskeházi, who is responsible for the project-related infrastructure, innovation and local content, a ‘smart’ town will be created to provide these people with accommodation and social facilities for the project period. It will bring together 47 settlements. “The Paks II project will be a burden for Paks and neighboring towns and villages, so we need to ease this burden for the period of construction. The first thing to be done is to improve infrastructure, road and communications, and build a bridge between Paks and Kalocsa,” he said. To accommodate workers and their families, Paks needs to build 1,500 permanent and 3,300–3,500 temporary apartments. Their location, layout and other details are coordinated with Russia. According to estimates of Atilla Becskeházi, there will be a total of 500 projects delivered in the area. All of them are targeted at life quality improvement.
