(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan triggered a shift in attitudes to nuclear energy.
Many countries put plans for new reactors on hold while others, like Germany, decided to get out of nuclear power altogether.
But, as Kerry Skyring reports, the fallout from Fukushima is not reaching central Europe.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
The roar of a steam-driven generator at the Paks nuclear power station in central Hungary.
In a cavernous hall beside the Danube River four nuclear reactors drive powerful generators.
Together they produce about half of Hungary's electricity.
And according to Par Kovacs, adviser to the general director of this plant, there's a big market for this atomic energy.
"I am sure that the European market will largely change in the coming 3, 4, 5 years. That means that new market opportunities will open for the current electricity generators."
The technical director of Paks, Geza Pekarik, explains that the plant was designed more than 40 years ago and then commissioned in the 1980s.
It's design life-span was 30 years - but now that's to be extended by another twenty years.
And a ten billion euro deal has just been signed with Russia's state nuclear corporation to build two more reactors on the Paks site.
Par Kovacs says Hungary is looking for electricity markets beyond its own borders.
"Also with the introduction of renewable energy resources in the wide European market there will be a lot of opportunity for the nuclear producers as well because the nuclear would provide the stability for situations when there is no sun and there is no wind blowing."
A farmer ploughs a field near the village of Bohunice in north-west Slovakia.
Looming over this peaceful scene are the huge cooling towers of the local atomic power station.
It dates from the Soviet era.
Two of its reactors have been shut down but two are still running - and now two more reactors have been given the green light.
Remo Cicutto is the mayor of the nearby town of Piestanyi.
Around Bohunice, he's one of the few people urging caution as Slovakia, like its neighbour Hungary, increases its dependency on nuclear power.
"The general fear of course is there and we fear for example a meltdown like in Japan or in Ukraine. For myself, I don't have a very good feeling about it."
At Paks they're proud of their safety record and keen to show off their training facility - where atomic workers from around the world train on the real thing - nuclear reactors and generators purchased from Poland.
Bob Kelly, an expert on nuclear energy with decades of experience at the United States department of energy weapons laboratory, is impressed by the Hungarians' approach to safety.
"Very much. I've been to nuclear facilities around the world and to places as bad as Iraq and Libya and the first thing I look at is the safety culture. What I saw at Paks was a smoothly running, clean, well-organised factory, large factory, and the immediate impression you get is people who work there know their jobs and are dedicated to doing it carefully."
The ticking time bomb for most atomic plants is the waste - the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel - and what to do with it.
In the past Hungary shipped some of it to Russia but is now developing its own underground storage facilities.
It's a big investment and another sign that the country is committed to an atomic energy future.
But Bob Kelly says small states like Hungary should be cautious about getting too hooked on one energy source
"The one thing that I see that would concern me is that four units at Paks are providing half of the energy in Hungary. And so if something were to happen at the site.. a natural event or some kind of an accident you could lose half your generating capacity in one fell swoop and that would be of some concern."
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