Paks nuclear plant faces repeated delays and unexpected turbine shutdown

The Paks nuclear power station has been adjusting the schedule for bringing two of its generators back online, with the latest estimate placing the restart around mid-day. Earlier in the week, scheduled maintenance halved the output of block 2, and on Wednesday a turbine in block 1 entered protective shutdown, instantly removing 242 MW from the plant’s roughly 1,250 MW capacity. The loss was logged at 6:36 a.m. but the official notice listed the outage as starting at 8:02 a.m., and the operator posted a statement about the protective stop only around noon.

Over the following six hours the announced deadline for resuming full output shifted several times before the turbine was back in operation by late afternoon. By 7 p.m. the unit was running at half power, and the block achieved its 511 MW peak after 9 p.m., helping to offset the shortfall with additional solar generation.