First – the wildfires; now – the droughts.
We’ve been reporting on how the new summer time season in Europe is inflicting every kind of disturbances – and one of the crucial consequential is the drought of many necessary rivers of the continent.
The mythic ‘Blue Danube’, for instance, is so low that it’s inflicting actual issues within the power system of each Hungary and Romania.
At present (13), it arises that Romania has been pressured to fully shut down its solely nuclear energy station.
🇷🇴 Romania has begun shutting down each reactors at its Cernavodă nuclear plant after months of drought and excessive warmth pushed the Danube to record-low ranges.
The plant usually provides round 20% of the nation’s electrical energy.
Comply with: @europa pic.twitter.com/cpf4gwJKhh
— Europa.com (@europa) August 13, 2026
BBC reported:
“The Cernavodă plant, the place two reactors produce about 20% of Romania’s electrical energy, shouldn’t be anticipated to be restarted inside the subsequent 10 days.
Earlier this week, authorities tried to extend the water circulation to the plant – which makes use of the Danube for cooling – by sinking barges loaded with rocks within the river.
Neighboring Hungary has to this point prevented a shutdown of its solely nuclear plant in Paks, which additionally makes use of the Danube. The waters in Europe’s second-longest river have fallen to the bottom ranges for 30 years in a number of nations.”
Cernavodă nuclear plant shuts down indefinitely at present
Reactor 2 is being progressively disconnected attributable to critically low Danube ranges
Romania now depends on power imports pic.twitter.com/hQxHEQt0sy
— Courageous Romania (@brave_romania) August 13, 2026
Euronews reported:
“The Cernavodă plant, which normally generates a fifth of Romania’s electrical energy, has been shut down simply as soon as earlier than, in 2003, attributable to drought.
The nationwide nuclear power firm Nuclearelectrica had already shut down one of many plant’s two reactors final month and introduced on Thursday that it wanted to close the second as effectively ‘as a result of vital and ongoing drop within the water degree of the River Danube’.
Romania had been attempting to avert an entire shutdown of the plant’s two 700MW reactors. It had budgeted greater than €2 million to attempt to divert the Danube’s circulation to be able to keep cooling of the reactors, together with blowing up a rock and sinking 4 barges stuffed with rocks into the river.”
⚡️ Romania shuts down the Cernavodă Nuclear Energy Plant attributable to critically low Danube ranges
That is the primary such shutdown in 23 years. There is no such thing as a longer sufficient water within the river to correctly cool the reactors.
The nation has already begun importing electrical energy from Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/mN9FOhnGEd
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 13, 2026
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