2023-07-11 12:58:42
According to several Direkt36 sources, Energy Minister Csaba Lantos replaced the head of the Paks nuclear power plant because the position of Géza Pekárik needed a “old-fashioned” confidant.
There were no professional objections to the award, which was also previously awarded by the Orbán government Bakers with Géza who, at the beginning of 2023, had been leading the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which plays a key role in the country’s energy supply, for more than four years. January 12th Csaba Luton, the head of the then newly established Ministry of Energy still decided to fire him.
The next day, the government announced that Péter János Horváth is appointed head of the nuclear power plant, and Pekárik is employed as a consultant from now on. Until then, Horváth was the president of the Hungarian Energy and Public Works Regulatory Office (MEKH), which oversees the domestic energy market, but in addition to his professional background, he was also known for having good political connections on the government side. It happened that he met Fidesz politicians at sports matches, and for a while he also led the basic organization in Szolnok, which is considered one of the important bases of Fidesz, the portal reads.
Horváth left the head of the MEKH in stormy circumstances. Due to one of the decisions of the office he leads, the energy bills of local governments increased drastically last fall, which, according to Direkt36’s research, also angered city leaders from Fidesz.
The government did not want to leave Horváth, who subsequently resigned as head of the MEKH, without a more important post. The Paks Nuclear Power Plant was singled out for him, which, however, is facing a rather complicated task. They will soon start renovating the facility, the aim of which is to ensure that Paks I. does not have to be closed in the 2030s. Horváth, an oil engineer, has no nuclear experience, so he is not expected to have a say in certain issues.
The complicated Paks renovation
The Orbán government announced last summer that they wanted to postpone the operating hours of the Paks nuclear power plant. This was justified, among other things, by the uncertainty of energy supply due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The operating license of the four blocks of the nuclear power plant expires between 2032 and 2037, and the purpose of the extension is to postpone the various deadlines for each block by at least ten and at most twenty years.
Extending the operating time will be a serious technical task.
However, this more challenging work will no longer be directed by Géza Pekárik, who has been working continuously at the nuclear power plant since 1987, and has been leading the facility since 2018, but by János Péter Horváth, who has good government relations but lacks experience in the world of the nuclear industry. .
Always in position
Horváth has been around Fidesz for decades. In the 1990s, he even led the basic organization of Fidesz in Szolnok. He played politics in the party during the period when Attila Várhegyi was the mayor of the city.
“Horváth is the archdeacon. He was Várhegyi’s confidant, they did almost everything together,” an acquaintance of Horváth told Direkt36.
Várhegyi is considered one of the key figures of Fidesz, his political career was broken when he was convicted of embezzlement in 2002, but he still retained his influence in Fidesz.
However, several professionals working in the field complained to Direkt36 that the government appointed Horváth as the head of Paks I precisely during the sensitive period of the extension of operating hours.
This is a very complex task. And then they send a person with no experience in Paks there, taking a huge risk
said one of them.
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