First – the wildfires; now – the droughts.
We have been reporting on how the hot summer season in Europe is causing all kinds of disturbances – and one of the most consequential is the drought of many important rivers of the continent.
The mythic ‘Blue Danube’, for example, is so low that it’s causing real problems in the energy system of both Hungary and Romania.
Today (13), it arises that Romania has been forced to completely shut down its only nuclear power station.
Romania has begun shutting down both reactors at its Cernavodă nuclear plant after months of drought and extreme heat pushed the Danube to record-low levels.
The plant normally supplies around 20% of the country’s electricity.
Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/cpf4gwJKhh
— Europa.com (@europa) August 13, 2026
Romania has begun shutting down both reactors at its Cernavodă nuclear plant after months of drought and extreme heat pushed the Danube to record-low levels.BBC reported:
“The Cernavodă plant, where two reactors produce about 20% of Romania’s electricity, is not expected to be restarted within the next 10 days.
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.
Neighboring 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.”
Cernavodă nuclear plant shuts down indefinitely today
Reactor 2 is being gradually disconnected due to critically low Danube levels
Romania now relies on energy imports pic.twitter.com/hQxHEQt0sy
— Brave Romania (@brave_romania) August 13, 2026
Euronews reported:
“The Cernavodă plant, which usually generates a fifth of Romania’s electricity, has been shut down just once before, in 2003, due to drought.
The national nuclear energy company Nuclearelectrica had already shut down one of the plant’s two reactors last month and announced on Thursday that it needed to shut the second as well ‘due to the significant and ongoing drop in the water level of the River Danube’.
Romania had been trying to avert a complete shutdown of the plant’s two 700MW reactors. It had budgeted more than €2 million to try to divert the Danube’s flow in order to maintain cooling of the reactors, including blowing up a rock and sinking four barges filled with rocks into the river.”
This is the first such shutdown in 23 years. There is no longer enough water in the river to properly cool the reactors.
The country has already begun importing electricity from Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/mN9FOhnGEd
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 13, 2026
Romania shuts down the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant due to critically low Danube levelsRead more:
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