Hungarian Emfesz says to start building new plant

Hungarian gas wholesaler Emfesz said on Thursday that next year it would start building its planned gas-fuelled power plant which will have a total capacity of 2,400 megawatts.

The first two of the plant's six 400-MW units will be operational by 2011 and construction is expected to be completed by 2015, Emfesz said in a statement.

The plant will be built in northeast Hungary, near the border with Ukraine, at a total cost of 1.5 billion euros ($2.33 billion).

Nuclear energy in Hungary should play a role in the future and its contribution must be evaluated, the environment minister told MTI on Thursday.

Climate change dictates the use of alternative energy resources with relatively little or practically no carbon-dioxide emissions. One of these resources is nuclear energy, said Imre Szabo.

Szabo said he agreed with professor Istvan Lang, who was a key participant in drafting Hungary's climate change policy, that the role of nuclear energy had to be reconsidered.