Soil consolidation of nuclear islands completed

After Unit 5, soil stabilisation has been completed under the nuclear island of Unit 6, and this year only the areas outside these islands will be subject to such activities, mainly in the second and third quarters. The excavation to design level in the Unit 5 working cavern will soon be completed, Peter Rákóczi of Paks II Zrt.'s communications director Paks II summarised these as the main updates on the work in the area. He explained that the number of workers - which, by the way, is always the responsibility of the companies concerned - is of course always in line with the current schedule and tasks.

"We have reached the lowest point of the design level of Block 5, which is 23 metres, which is almost as far down as we have to go to get to the roof of a ten-storey building" - Péter Rákóczi said. "The work pit is monumental and the amount of work done so far is remarkable, especially when you take into account the amount of planning, preparation and permitting work that has been done", he added. He stressed that great care is being taken in all phases of the work, which is constantly monitored by the National Atomic Energy Authority.

The communications director pointed out that the claims circulating on social media about the collapse of the slot wall. „This is physically impossible, as the slot wall typically surrounds the block area underground to a depth of 32 metres and a length of 2.7 kilometres. The recording shows the work pit, the condition of which we continuously monitor using hydrogeological, geotechnical and geodetic methods. The company shares the measured data with both the National Atomic Energy Agency and the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. Although the monitoring system's up-to-date data did not reach the threshold requiring intervention, based on a conservative approach and following the principle of „Safety first!”, i.e. safety above all else, we decided to reinforce the wall section (the light brown section visible in the upper left part of the image below),” he said. He added that the site preparation work was continuously monitored by OAH experts, during which the authority did not identify any problems that would have required intervention.

Péter Rákóczi said that spectacular works were already underway last year in the area next to the two new blocks, and will continue this year, as the service facilities are being built, including, for example, the impressive steel structure hall, the dimensions of which are the same as those of the Fővám Square fair hall. In the first half of the year, the tower cores will also appear in Block 5 and construction of the buildings will begin. The first step, of course, is the foundation. "The volume of the work is such that 88,000 cubic metres of precast concrete and 60,000 cubic metres of structural concrete will be needed for the base slabs of the two blocks alone, and about 19,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel", the communications director outlined. To give a sense of the scale, he added that a total of 63,000 cubic metres of concrete and 7,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel were used to build MOL Campus, so that the construction below ground level alone exceeds the total construction raw material requirements for MOL.