Danube water levels: Hungary, Romania cut nuclear output
Historically low water levels along Europe's second-longest river have led Hungary and Romania to reduce output at key nuclear plants. Danube tourism and river cargo
Historically low water levels along Europe's second-longest river have led Hungary and Romania to reduce output at key nuclear plants. Danube tourism and river cargo have also been severely affected by Europe's heatwave. Hungary and Romania have drastically reduced output at their nuclear power plants due to insufficient water flow from the Danube river, which has sunk to historically low levels. Hungary's Paks nuclear plant, located 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) south of the capital, Budapest, cut output by 50% at reactor 2 on Thursday morning. The plant operates four Russian-built reactors with a combined capacity of 2 gigawatts. Output had already been cut by 254 megawatts on reactor 1 on Monday, before reactor 3 powered down on Wednesday. Down river in Romania, one of two reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear plant, 160 kilometers east of Bucharest, was shut down earlier this week due to lower water levels. The Romanian Energy Ministry was set to shut down the plant's second reactor on Thursday due to "unfavorable developments in hydraulic conditions" – but ultimately managed to keep it operating overnight. Water from the Danube is vital for cooling operations at nuclear power plants along Europe's second-longest river (2,857 kilometers, after the Volga which meanders 3,790 through Russia). In Budapest, Hungary's national water authority measured the Danube's gauge level at 23 centimeters (9 inches) on Wednesday morning, well below the previous record low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) set in 2018.
The Hungarian nuclear power plant in Paks, just south of Budapest, has reduced reactor output due to low Danube water levels Image: Daniel Kiss/MTI/AP Photo/picture alliance Heatwave in Europe: Danube river traffic on hold And it's not just nuclear power plants which are affected; river traffic from cargo ships to tourist cruises has also been put on hold. In Hungary, the low water level has forced popular cruise ships, where passengers usually disembark for sightseeing in Budapest, to dock further upriver, while cargo ships have stopped operating nearly entirely, according to the country's Ministry of Transport and Investment. In neighboring Romania, the water level along parts of the Danube is already one meter (three feet) below the navigable minimum. "This is an exceptional situation," Adrian Maizel, from the administration monitoring traffic on the Danube, told the AFP news agency, adding that dredging efforts were underway to enable shipping to continue. "We are making efforts to maintain a navigable channel as much as possible – albeit a narrower one – so that navigation is not completely blocked," he explained. In Bulgaria, where the Danube forms a border with Romania, police on Tuesday evacuated 186 tourists from a cruise ship that had run aground near the port city of Vidin.
The BriefWire