The Museum of Nuclear Energetics opened its doors to the public on 7 March 2012. At the present moment it awaits guests and visitors as a national specialized museum.
The history of the museum’s collection goes back to the year 1992 when the company’s CEO made a decision that the documents related to construction and operation of the nuclear power plant should be collected. Experts of the former National Technical Museum drew our attention to the fact that material objects connected with the expansion and utilization of nuclear energy in Hungary are not collected in any of the domestic museums; therefore, the collection of exhibits associated with the plant’s history should be assigned museum status. As a result, in 1999 the Plant History Collection received a licence for operating with the status of a museum and in 2002 with the help of the then Chief Executive Officer we managed to find appropriate premises to accommodate the collection. At the present moment the museum operates as a national specialized museum.
On the 2000-square-metre area of the Museum of Nuclear Energetics visitors can become closely acquainted with various types of equipment regularly used in the primary and secondary circuits of the nuclear power plant. For instance, they can try out the operation of a radiation control gate, a dosimeter or a screw driving machine.
The exhibition area that can be divided into four sections shows the life of the nuclear power plant and its environments with the help of two rows of showcases. Here we can see specialized devices and instruments used on the site of the nuclear power plant by different professional units, as well as souvenirs, gifts, awards and promotional materials connected with the nuclear power plant’s history.
In the gallery the items of six institutes belonging to the national collecting sphere of the museum can be seen (Hungarian Academy of Sciences Atomic Energy Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Nuclear Research, Budapest University of Technology and Economics Institute of Nuclear Techniques, University of Debrecen Institute of Physics, GAMMA Technology Inc., Public Agency for Radioactive Waste Management).
Here, as from April 2014 we also organise temporary exhibitions.
The facility also welcomes schoolchildren from different age groups, offering them various, regularly updated museum-based educational programmes to bring them closer to the miraculous world of physics. For example, at the present moment a programme called an ‘Unusual physics class’ is offered for their attention. Guided tours are provided for pre-registered groups.
Information on the current temporary exhibition:
After several months of preparatory work, the Museum of Nuclear Energetics of MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant has opened a temporary exhibition in the museum’s gallery, ‘Heroic period of Cybernetics – or there was life before the PC appeared’, which can be seen from May to October.
Cybernetics is the branch of science covering general communications, control and information processing taking place in machines and living organisms. By means of displayed exhibits the museum provides a richly-illustrated insight into the pioneering work carried out by numerous scientists labouring in the field of cybernetics. The exhibition includes exhibits that could not have been seen earlier. Among the displayed items we can find, for instance, various unique counting devices, some unit components of the first Hungarian electronic computer and also the prototype of the cybernetics construction kit named ‘Grasshopper’, made in the Piarist Grammar School in Budapest. Basically, given its theme, the exhibition is targeted primarily at young adults; however, it could also be attractive for all those who are interested in the initial attempts to develop informatics.
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 8.00-15.00
Saturday: 9.00-13.00
Sunday: closed
Research period:
Tuesday, Wednesday: 8.00-15.00
Telephone: + 36 75-507-432, + 36 75-507-431.