Europe’s high temperatures and low rainfall continue to cause the water levels of the Danube River to drop to historic lows, threatening the cooling water supply of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary. Hungarian authorities have initiated emergency measures on Saturday (August 15), planning to sink two barges near the nuclear power plant and mobilize the military to build a submerged dam in the riverbed to raise the water level near the intake point.
The Paks Nuclear Power Plant, constructed during the Soviet era and equipped with four units, was commissioned in December 1982. Located 120 kilometers south of the Hungarian capital Budapest, it normally supplies over 40% of the country’s electricity.
According to reports from Reuters, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant is currently operating at about 25% of its total capacity. As the plant relies on the Danube River water for cooling, the decreasing river water levels may force the plant to reduce electricity generation further, potentially leading to the shutdown of turbines still in operation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar pointed out that the water level near the Paks Nuclear Power Plant is currently 122 centimeters lower than normal, with forecasts predicting it to drop below 132 centimeters by the morning of August 17. Without external intervention, one of the two turbines still in operation inside the plant is already shut down. If the situation worsens, it could lead to a complete shutdown of the entire plant.
Prime Minister Péter acknowledged, “The Danube River is giving us only a few days, not a few months.” He highlighted that the plant’s reduced capacity operation has resulted in an economic loss of up to 50 billion forints (approximately 158 million USD) for Hungary every month.
To address the urgent situation, Hungarian authorities officially launched a Controlled Sinking Operation on Saturday morning, sinking two barges around 80 meters long near the nuclear power plant to temporarily raise the water level near the intake point and prevent the shutdown of the operational turbines. It is estimated that this operation will raise the water level by 1 to 20 centimeters.
As a long-term solution, the Hungarian government previously announced an investment of about 6 billion forints (approximately 19 million USD) to construct an underwater dam made of concrete or stone upstream of the plant. This is aimed at regulating the water flow and raising the water level by more than 90 centimeters.
The Hungarian Ministry of Defense has assigned 100 soldiers to work around the clock on this project, which is expected to take several weeks and consume over 150,000 cubic meters of stones.
Neighboring Romania had also taken emergency measures previously, including sinking four barges carrying rocks in the Danube River, dredging the riverbed, and removing rocks obstructing the water flow to redirect it towards the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant.
However, as the Danube River water levels continued to decline, the Romanian state-owned nuclear company, Nuclearelectrica, announced on August 13 that they had begun a controlled shutdown of the second unit at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant; the first unit had been shut down at the end of July. The company stated that both units are in a safe shutdown state without affecting nuclear safety parameters.
Additionally, according to Le Monde, more than 50 nuclear reactors in France have been ordered to shut down due to high cooling water temperatures. In the northern Gravelines Nuclear Power Plant, abnormal weather conditions led to a massive invasion of jellyfish into the cooling system, causing the shutdown of some units.