Romania completely disconnects its only nuclear power plant due to the lowering of the Danube

This Thursday, Romania completely disconnected the Cernavoda power plant, its only nuclear plant, by turning off the facility's second reactor, due to the persistent drop in the Danube water level and the failure of several attempts to raise it in order to cool the thermal cycle.

According to the Romanian Ministry of Energy, the second reactor, which was generating 700 megawatts (MW) of electricity, was disconnected on Thursday morning, after having done the same on July 28 with the other unit of the plant, of the same power.

Until then, with its two reactors and an installed capacity of 1,400 MW, Cernavoda supplied 20% of the electricity demand of the Balkan country, with 19 million inhabitants. Its temporary closure was made necessary by the drop in the flow of the Danube to its lowest levels in the last 40 years, accentuated in turn by several extreme heat waves and a prolonged drought in central Europe.

In the last week, the Romanian Army has tried in vain to raise the water level in the Cernavoda catchment area through various engineering works, such as dynamiting rocks at the bottom of the water and sinking barges loaded with stones.

The National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management predicts that until the 19th, the flow of the Danube at its entrance into Romania will remain stable at its very low levels, around 1,400 cubic meters per second, when the average at this time of year is 3,900 cubic meters/second.

Although the Romanian authorities have been taking measures for days to increase energy production from wind farms and reactivate coal plants, as well as to increase the import of electricity from other countries, they do not rule out supply problems.

In a scenario in which the country does not have enough energy to import, the population could be forced to reduce consumption, warned Radu Gabor, chief nuclear safety engineer at the plant, as reported by Antena 3.

The authorities have already made several calls for the population to reduce electricity consumption between 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., and several cities adopted energy-saving measures, such as turning off architectural and decorative lighting or not charging electric buses at critical hours.