Romania on Thursday began shutting down its only remaining operating nuclear reactor as record-low water levels on the Danube have forced nuclear power shutdowns in central and eastern Europe in recent weeks.
Nuclearelectrica has launched the process to disconnect the one operating reactor at Romania’s only nuclear plant at Cernavoda on the Danube, the Romanian state-owned nuclear power plant operator said on Thursday.
Nuclearelectrica had shut down another reactor at Cernavoda at the end of July as scorching temperatures and drought in Europe this summer have sank the water levels on the Danube to the lowest in 90 years.
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Cernavoda’s two 706-MW reactors would typically generate about a fifth of Romania’s electricity.
To offset the loss of both reactors, the country has switched on a 330-MW coal-fired power plant and expects to rely on wind power more, where available.
“We do not foresee a restart within the next ten days,” the director of the Cernavoda plant, Romeo Urjan, told AFP today.
Romania has tried in recent weeks to postpone the possible shutdown of nuclear power by blasting a rock formation and sinking barges filled with rocks last week, attempting to deviate the Danube’s flow and secure enough water for cooling the reactors at Cernavoda.
This measure apparently worked only for a few days.
Hungary also plans to sink barges and build a sill on the Danube to keep its only nuclear power plant, which generates a third of the country’s electricity, running.
Hungary saw one of the turbines at the Paks nuclear resume electricity production on Monday as the Danube water level inched up thanks to rainfall in Austria.
The heatwave and scarce rainfall in Europe have created problems with France’s nuclear power output, too. Europe’s biggest nuclear electricity supplier curbed output again this week amid the fifth heatwave to have hit western Europe so far this summer.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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