Hungary Sinks Barges to Lift Danube Near Its Nuclear Plant
(Bloomberg) -- The Danube’s water level has begun rising near Hungary’s sole nuclear plant after authorities started sinking two barges to help keep the facility operating and avoid a costly full shutdown.
The level at the Paks plant’s pumping station has already risen by about one centimeter, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said at the site on Saturday. Workers are also building an underwater barrier to slow the river and raise the level available for cooling, with about 5,000 metric tons of stone due to arrive during the day.
Unrelenting heat waves have been drying up waterways across Europe and straining power grids, with persistent drought severely impacting Danube river flows and hindering the cooling of reactors.
Paks, which generates around 40% of Hungary’s electricity output, is currently producing 485 megawatts, a quarter of its roughly 2,000-megawatt capacity. The Danube is forecast to fall to a level early next week that would require one of its two remaining operating turbines to be switched off, with a further decline potentially forcing the entire plant to shut.
A full shutdown would increase Hungary’s need for electricity imports in the evening hours and impose additional costs before the reactors could return to service. Magyar has estimated that keeping Paks offline would cost at least 50 billion forints ($159 million) a month, excluding losses to companies from tighter power supplies.
Low Danube levels have already forced nuclear generation cuts elsewhere in the region. Earlier this week, Romania shut its Cernavoda nuclear plant, located downstream on the Danube.
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