Overview
- Hungary took its Paks nuclear plant fully offline on July 31 after the Danube fell below levels needed for reactor cooling and the prime minister said a restart is not expected soon.
- Romania has taken at least one reactor at the Cernavodă plant offline and declared a nationwide state of emergency for August because falling Danube flows have cut domestic power production.
- The Paks shutdown removes about 2,000 megawatts and typically supplies roughly half of Hungary’s electricity while Cernavodă’s two 706 MW reactors normally cover about one fifth of Romania’s demand.
- Governments are using short‑term fixes including approved funds to divert water, talks to import electricity from neighbors, appeals for voluntary cuts by industry and households, and preparations for targeted temporary outages.
- Low river levels are also halting navigation, reducing Danube hydropower output and disrupting local water supplies in towns such as Szentendre, and experts say the episode highlights how climate‑driven drought can create cascading risks for energy, transport and communities.