TASS FACTBOX. On February 5, 2026, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto gave a start to the first concrete pouring for the foundation of the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which is being built based on a Russian design. The TASS FACTBOX editorial team has prepared background information on Rosatom’s international nuclear projects.
The Soviet Union began constructing nuclear power plants abroad in the early 1960s. In October 1966, the first such facility was commissioned in the town of Rheinsberg in the GDR (now Germany; the plant was shut down in 1990). In the 1970s and early 1980s, the production associations Atomenergoexport and Zarubezhatomenergostroy were involved in building nuclear power plants in Bulgaria, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Cuba, and other countries. However, in the early 1990s, many of these projects were either suspended or fully discontinued.
At present, Russia’s overseas nuclear activities are carried out by companies and organizations within the structure of Rosatom, including Atomstroyexport, Rusatom Overseas, Rosatom International Network, and others. Rosatom ranks first globally by the number of nuclear power plant construction projects abroad, with 41 power units in 11 countries worldwide.
