Romania begins shutdown of nuclear plant due to low Danube

Buchares: Romania began Thursday the complete shutdown of its only nuclear plant after water levels in the Danube, used to cool the site, fell to a record low, the national nuclear energy company said.

Nuclearelectrica already shut down last month one of the two reactors at the Cernavoda power plant, which usually generates a fifth of the Eastern European country's total electricity.

The second needed to shut as well "due to the significant and ongoing drop in the water level of the River Danube", it said in a statement.

"Nuclearelectrica SA announces that, on the morning of 13 August 2026, it began the procedures for the controlled shutdown of Unit 2 at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant," it said.

Romania has been trying for days to avert a complete shutdown of the plant's two 700MW reactors.

These included blowing up a rock and sinking four barges filled with rocks into the river to try to divert its flows, with total costs are budgeted at more than two million euros $2.3 million.

It is the plant's first shutdown since a 2003 drought, when it had to close for several weeks.

Alternative sources, including from wind power generation, as well as imports, are expected to cover electricity supply, the energy ministry said on Wednesday.

It also reiterating an appeal for "responsible consumption".

Unprecedented heatwaves and rain shortages across Europe this year have caused the level of the Danube to plummet.

Nearly two-thirds of the Danube has recorded flow rates that are the lowest on record for a month of July in 34 years of measurements, according to an analysis published on Monday by the European climate change observatory Copernicus.

The current drought, which is already severe, has been exacerbated by human-induced climate change, according to a report by the World Weather Attribution group of scientists, who warn that the problem is set to worsen.