József Eck: Commitment, responsibility, cooperation

Commitment, responsibility, cooperation – these are the most essential qualities for successful work in the nuclear industry, and these are the most important principles that József Eck represented in his work. Paks II. Zrt., who is now retiring as deputy CEO, joined the team of experts working on the construction of the nuclear power plant at the end of 2012. Prior to that, he worked at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and the Radioactive Waste Management Non-Profit Organisation Kft. from 1979.

József Eck graduated from the Budapest University of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering and later in engineering and economics. He originally planned to work in a thermal power plant, but the novelty of nuclear energy lured him to Paks, to build a nuclear power plant. The biggest challenge of his career, and the most successful project, was the shutdown of the plant in 2003. As recovery project manager, he planned, organised and managed the work, supervising the removal of damaged cassettes. As he pointed out, this was not an individual effort but a team effort, as were the other successful projects that have been associated with his name. "I owe a lot to the colleagues I worked with," he stressed. He said that he came to Paks "in the middle" of the construction of the first power plant, and with it the nuclear industry, and then he has developed his knowledge in many different fields. He was invited to build the new nuclear power plant because of this experience and because he was known to be a man of quick solutions. In his words, a leader, especially in the nuclear industry, is under constant pressure to make decisions. In this context, he stressed, responsibility was of particular importance. On the Paks II project, he said that he had indicated from the outset that building a nuclear power plant was a huge task. "The current one is much bigger than the previous one because of its size and because there are a lot of new safety systems and much stricter regulations," he explained. "What has happened so far has been child's play. The hard part comes now, you have to build the work", concluded József Eck, who passed the baton to his successor with this thought.

"We are facing completely new challenges", confirmed Kristián Szarvas, former Technical Director, who will take over the role of Deputy CEO of Paks II. Zrt. from the beginning of summer 2025. The biggest challenge, he said, is meeting deadlines. "The necessary operational decisions have to be taken. Everything - plans, equipment, human resources - has to be in place to ensure that the implementation is on track," said Krisztián Szarvas. He added that if circumstances - legal, technical, economic, political - change, we will have to adapt to ensure that the plant is built to the highest technical standards.