A new milestone has been reached with the completion of soil works under Block 5 of the Paks nuclear power plant, and similar works under Block 6 are under way, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Monday. Countries that produce most of their energy requirements are generally regarded as “safe”, the minister said on Facebook, adding that Hungary was intent on speeding up construction of the plant’s two new blocks at Paks, Hungary’s only commercial nuclear power plant. Szijjártó spoke by phone with Aleksey Likhacsov, chief executive of Rosatom, the general contractor for the construction of the additional two blocks at Paks, on Monday, and they reviewed key tasks for the next few weeks with a view to accelerating the project. He said 24,000 piles have been drilled into the ground, one-third of the total, and more than 1,000 people are working at the site and this number would soon increase significantly.