Romania will begin shutting down its only nuclear power plant on Thursday after the Danube’s flow fell to a record low this week and efforts to avert a complete shutdown failed, the government said on Wednesday.
It will be the plant’s first shutdown since a 2003 drought, as unprecedented heatwaves and rain shortages across Europe this year have caused the level of the Danube -- whose waters help cool the plant -- to plummet.
“Unit 2 of Cernavoda NPP (nuclear power plant) will be shut down in a controlled manner starting tomorrow, in the context of the current hydrological conditions,” the energy ministry said in a statement.
Alternative sources, including from wind power generation, as well as imports, are expected to cover electricity supply, it said, reiterating an appeal for “responsible consumption”.
The plant, which usually generates a fifth of the Eastern European country’s total electricity, already shut down one of its two 700MW nuclear reactors at the end of last month.
The second reactor was expected to shut down as well, but dredging operations and other work to direct more Danube water toward the plant bought some time.
The efforts, whose total costs are budgeted at more than two million euros $2.3 million), have also included blowing up a rock and sinking four barges filled with rocks into the river to try to divert its flows.
The Cernavoda plant was shut for several weeks in 2003, when it only had one reactor in operation.
Neighbouring Hungary so far has been able to avoid a complete shutdown of its nuclear plant, which is also cooled by Danube water.
As the Danube is expected to drop further, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Wednesday announced that the government had ordered the construction of a submerged weir near the Paks plant.
Two 80-metre barges are also being stationed at Paks, which could be sunk to raise the water level.
Paks -- whose output from four nuclear reactors usually covers around a third of the central European country’s electricity needs -- has already been partially shut down since late last month.
