Hungary to Sink Barges, Build Weir to Save Nuclear Plant
Officials say the emergency river works could lift water levels by up to 1 meter and prevent a full shutdown of Hungary’s only nuclear plant.
- On Wednesday, Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced authorities are building a riverbed sill and positioning 80-metre barges near the Paks Nuclear Power Plant to raise Danube River water levels and secure cooling capacity.
- Persistent drought and heatwaves drove the Danube to record lows, forcing Paks to operate at around 10% capacity and threatening the facility's 44-year history of uninterrupted power generation.
- Prime Minister Magyar stated the intervention costs around 6 billion forints, far below the 50 billion forints monthly economic losses if operations ceased, justifying rapid deployment.
- Following a 19-centimetre rise in Danube levels, Paks began restarting a turbine on Monday, increasing output from 240 megawatts to 500 megawatts under strict technical and safety conditions.
- Officials warned the water level rise remains temporary, prompting the government to review Paks 2 expansion and diversify energy supplies by tendering 700 megawatts of wind power capacity by August 31.
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86 Articles
In the face of the drought, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced the launch of construction works to raise the level of the river and ensure the cooling of the Paks nuclear power plant, which now operates at only 25% of its capacity.
In the early days of August, the Danube level fell to historical lows due to drought and heat waves, forcing seven of the plant’s eight turbines to stop
Hungary wants to raise the low Danube level with a hollow threshold. The military should start immediately to secure the cooling of the nuclear reactors in Paks again.
"After 16 years of idly watching our land dry up, they are now lecturing about delays," Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced on his platform X account, alluding to the country's energy situation due to a heat wave that lowered the level of the Danube.
The government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar has ordered the construction of a weir in the Danube riverbed to slow down the flow and raise the level of the river, which is used to cool the reactors of the Paks nuclear power plant. The government also has an emergency solution in the form of two tugboats loaded with rocks that can be sunk in the Danube if necessary, thereby raising the level of the river.
Danube so low the government is sinking barges and building a dam to save the nuclear plant
The government has ordered the immediate construction of a riverbed weir on the Danube between the Paks nuclear power plant and the settlement of Dunaszentbenedek. In parallel, as a temporary measure, two barges, each eighty metres long, are being placed on standby at Paks so that, if necessary, their controlled sinking can raise the Danube's water level by twenty centimetres in the short term — the Prime Minister reported on Wednesday on his Fa…
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