Overview
- Romania's energy ministry confirmed late Wednesday that the second 706 MW reactor at Cernavoda would be taken off the grid, creating the first time both units have been offline simultaneously because of low river levels.
- The two reactors together generate roughly one-fifth of Romania's electricity, so their loss creates a large shortfall that the system must cover with imports or demand reductions.
- The state water-management agency said Danube flow at Romania's entry point fell to about 1,650 m3/s on July 28 and forecast levels could drop to roughly 1,500 m3/s by Aug. 4, near the 1985 low of 1,400 m3/s.
- Before the second shutdown, Romania's peak demand was around 7.3 GW while domestic production reached about 4.3 GW, a gap that will push up electricity prices as heat-driven cooling demand rises.
- Neighbouring Hungary has already shut one reactor at Paks for the same cooling limits, so low Danube levels pose a cross-border risk to river-cooled plants and sustained low flows into early August would keep regional supply and market pressures high.