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Romania has shut down its only nuclear power station because of extremely low water levels in the Danube river caused by prolonged hot weather affecting much of Europe.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Cernavod\u0103 plant, where two reactors produce about 20% of Romania’s electricity, is not expected to be restarted within the next 10 days.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, authorities tried to increase the water flow to the plant – which uses the Danube for cooling – by sinking barges loaded with rocks in the river.<\/p>\n
Neighbouring Hungary has so far avoided a shutdown of its only nuclear plant in Paks, which also uses the Danube. The waters in Europe’s second-longest river have fallen to the lowest levels for 30 years in several countries.<\/p>\n
The second of the two 706-megawatt reactors at Cernavod\u0103 was disconnected from the Romanian electricity grid just before midday on Thursday. <\/p>\n
“We do not foresee a restart within the next 10 days,” plant director Romeo Urjan told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
The first reactor had already been shut down in July.<\/p>\n
Until now, Cernavod\u0103 had only been shut down once before in 2003.<\/p>\n
The shortfall in power is usually covered by solar and wind during the hot, windy daytimes – but traditional coal- and gas-powered generation will have to be supplemented by imports during the evenings.<\/p>\n
Romania also has huge hydropower capacity, although that has been heavily cut by the same low river levels that caused the nuclear shutdown.<\/p>\n
In Hungary, Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar warned last month that the Soviet-era Paks, which has four nuclear reactors, could be forced to shut down entirely for the first time.<\/p>\n
Plant officials said that levels in the Danube were so low that the suction nozzles used to take in water could not reach it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n