Overview
- The Danube has dropped to record lows this week, and on Thursday Hungary’s Paks plant was largely taken offline with one reactor at reduced output while Romania raced to sink rock-filled barges and blast riverbed rock to sustain Cernavodă’s remaining unit.
- Romania’s emergency works — dredging, a controlled explosion and submerging four barges filled with blasted rock — aim to redirect a few extra centimetres of water downstream to keep a Cernavodă reactor running for days rather than hours.
- European grid operators report increased cross-border imports are covering shortfalls, including a reported 61 gigawatt hours of Ukrainian power to Hungary, but neighbors face their own generation limits so imports are a finite stopgap.
- Low flows have stranded vessels, forced reduced cargo loads, suspended ferries and hurt hydropower output while receding beds have exposed WWII shipwrecks with live ammunition and prehistoric remains, creating safety and preservation hazards for riverside communities.
- Scientists link the drought’s severity to human-driven warming and say the episode exposes systemic risks in river-cooled energy infrastructure that will require investments in diversified cooling, storage and cross-border planning to avoid repeated emergencies.