{"id":589321,"date":"2026-08-19T09:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/589321\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T09:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:04:32","slug":"romania-shuts-its-last-nuclear-reactor-as-drought-hit-danube-river-drops-to-record-low-romania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/589321\/","title":{"rendered":"Romania shuts its last nuclear reactor as drought-hit Danube river drops to record low | Romania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romania has been forced to shut down the last working \u2060reactor at its only nuclear plant after drought caused the Danube river to fall to record lows \u2013 a rare move that will immediately affect power supplies in neighbouring Moldova<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Drought and record-low water levels have deepened fears of an energy crisis across Europe<\/a>, which is facing a new summer heatwave.<\/p>\n

The drought-hit Danube, whose waters cool the Romanian plant in Cernavoda, already forced Nucelarelectrica to shut down \u2060one reactor \u200bin late July.<\/p>\n

On Thursday the company said it needed to shut the second reactor \u201cdue to the significant and ongoing drop\u201d in the river\u2019s water level, and it did not foresee a restart in within the next 10 days. Nuclearelectrica\u2019s two 706-megawatt reactors account for 20% of the country\u2019s power \u2060output.<\/p>\n

Romania has declared a state of energy emergency throughout August and asked companies and households to reduce consumption during peak hours.<\/p>\n

Shutting down the reactor posed immediate problems for Moldova, Romania\u2019s eastern neighbour, \u2060which has also endured low river levels and relies on Romanian power \u200bto cover up to 60% \u200bof its own electricity shortages.<\/p>\n

With Romanian \u200bimports now unavailable, Moldova faces the prospect of increased purchases from Ukraine, \u200bif Kyiv can supply the \u200cpower, buying more \u200bexpensive power from \u200bwestern countries or imposing rolling power cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should be ready for a worsening situation, including power outages, although it\u2019s hard to say for sure right now,\u201d Moldovan energy expert Sergiu Tofilat told Radio Chisinau.<\/p>\n

Romania\u2019s energy ministry said it had \u2060turned on a 330-megawatt lignite-fired power plant, adding it was also relying on increased \u200bwind generation and hydro power \u2013 based \u200con available water in reservoirs \u2013 to \u200cmake up for shortages.<\/p>\n

It has warned that as a last resort, large industrial users would have to face restrictions in the evening hours to save electricity. In early August, the government said carmakers Dacia and Ford would pause production in the country until 19 August to help with the power deficit.<\/p>\n

Nearly two-thirds of the Danube has seen flow rates drop to the lowest on record for a July in 34 years, according to analysis from the European climate change observatory Copernicus.<\/p>\n

The drought has hit nuclear power providers across Europe.<\/p>\n

France, which uses nuclear power to generate about 70% of its electricity, recorded a more than 20% shortfall in atomic production capacity this week, a record deficit caused by outages linked to drought, extreme heat and a jellyfish invasion, according to Agence France-Presse calculations based on \u00c9lectricit\u00e9 de France (EDF) data.<\/p>\n

In total, 13 of the 57 reactors in EDF\u2019s nuclear fleet were affected.<\/p>\n

Hungary, neighbouring Romania, has avoided a complete shutdown of its only nuclear plant, Paks, whose four reactors are also cooled by the Danube.<\/p>\n

But with the river expected to drop further, Hungary\u2019s prime minister, P\u00e9ter Magyar, said on Wednesday that the government had ordered the construction of a submerged wall, or weir, to try to control flows nears the plant.<\/p>\n

Two 80-metre (260 feet) barges are also being stationed at Paks that could be sunk to raise the water level.<\/p>\n

Paks, which usually provides about a third of Hungary\u2019s electricity, has been partially shut down since late last month.<\/p>\n

The drought in Europe has been exacerbated by human-induced climate change, according to the World Weather Attribution group of scientists, who warn that the problem will worsen.<\/p>\n

The low levels of the Danube, Europe\u2019s second-longest river, have also severely affected shipping along its 2,850km (1,770 mile) route stretching from western Germany to the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

Reuters and Agence France-Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Romania has been forced to shut down the last working \u2060reactor at its only nuclear plant after drought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-589321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}