Hungary to start calling down Paks loan from Russia

Hungary will start calling down a loan of 10 billion euros from the state of Russia to upgrade the Paks nuclear power plant in days, the state secretary for the investment said at the Portfolio Energy Investment Forum conference on Tuesday. Payments on the first ten invoices submitted by Rosatom, the general contractor for the upgrade, have already started, said Attila Aszodi. The invoices were for a combined 98 million euros, he added. Eighty percent of the invoices will be paid out from an inter-state loan agreement concluded with Russia and the rest from Hungary's central budget, he said.