Record-Low Danube Levels Disrupt Nuclear Power in Hungary and Romania
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BUCHAREST, August 13 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) — Record-low water levels on the Danube have sharply reduced nuclear generation in Hungary and forced Romania to shut its last operating reactor, prompting both governments to pursue emergency measures to maintain cooling supplies.
Hungary reduced output from its 2-gigawatt Paks nuclear plant to just over 10% earlier this month, narrowly avoiding the facility’s first complete shutdown in 44 years. The plant is now operating at 25% of capacity.
Romania’s state-owned Nuclearelectrica shut its last working reactor on Thursday after attempts to divert additional cooling water to the plant proved insufficient. The company operates two 706-megawatt reactors that normally provide about one-fifth of the country’s electricity.
The emergency reductions have led authorities in both countries to ask companies and households to lower electricity consumption.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said Wednesday that the government would build a submerged, dam-like structure intended to raise the river level. Two barges could also be sunk on Friday in an attempt to avert a shutdown while the Danube is expected to recede further.
Hungary is reviewing cooling designs for the planned Paks 2 expansion, which would also depend on water from the Danube. Russia’s Rosatom was selected for the project without a tender in 2024.
Romania is pursuing a separate intervention near its nuclear plant, which is located on the Old Danube at its intersection with the Bala branch. The government approved a 1.02 billion lei ($225 million) project in 2024 to modify the riverbed and manage the distribution of water between the two branches.
The plan includes moving the intersection farther upstream and raising the riverbed sill on the deeper Bala branch. The project has been delayed, and the government has not provided a completion date.
Nuclearelectrica told Reuters that its studies indicated the Bala project would provide sufficient water for four reactors to operate at full capacity. Romania plans to add two reactors to the existing facility.
“Building Units 3 and 4 still makes sense if the necessary hydrotechnical works are done,” said Eugenia Gusilov, director of the Romania Energy Center think tank. She said alternative cooling methods could also be considered before construction begins.
Both countries remain committed to expanding nuclear generation, but scientific projections indicate that Central and Eastern Europe will become drier, according to Diana Urge-Vorsatz, a professor at the Central European University in Vienna.
‘This is not only due to less rains, but because the soil moisture and in the groundwater levels have dropped over the past years, and less precipitation and more heatwaves exacerbate soil drying’, she said.
Water engineers attending a Hungarian Hydrological Society conference last year warned that ‘flow patterns may become more extreme and volatile’ on the Danube.
The four Russian-made pressurized-water reactors at Paks generate around half of Hungary’s electricity. Romania’s reactors use Canadian CANDU technology. Both systems draw cooling water from the Danube before returning it to the river.
Nuclear plants in the Czech Republic and Slovakia use wet cooling towers, which require less water from rivers. Scientists have also proposed hybrid systems that would combine river cooling with cooling towers.
Attila Aszodi, a professor and nuclear expert at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, said retrofitting the original Paks reactors with a large cooling tower was unlikely to be economical.
“I don't think that for the remaining twenty-plus years I mean, the remaining lifetime of the Paks 1 power plant, it would be economical to install a large cooling tower,” Aszodi told Reuters. “A new evaluation of the cooling methods available on the site is definitely necessary.”
Source: Reuters
