Hungary to sink two barges near nuclear plant to ensure cooling
- Hungary plans to sink two 80-meter-long barges near the Paks Nuclear Power Plant to raise Danube River water levels and protect the plant's operation.
- This action aims to prevent a complete shutdown of the plant due to low water levels affecting its cooling system, which is considered an urgent and extraordinary situation.
- A bed sill construction is planned as a long-term solution to ensure water levels do not fall below safe thresholds for reactor operation.
- Operating the Paks plant under current conditions costs Hungary's economy up to 50 billion forints monthly, highlighting the financial impact of the low water levels.
47 Articles
47 Articles
Large-scale work is being carried out near the Hungarian nuclear power plant Paksh to raise the level of the Danube. 180 people, barges, helicopters and trucks were involved in the operation 16 August 2026
Hungary has flooded barges in the Danube to save the work of the Paksh NPP due to river spillingHungarian authorities are flooding barges near the Paksh NPP to raise the water level in the Danube to cool the reactors. Via metering station has already reduced production, and there is a risk of a complete shutdown.
In Hungary, two tugboats began a controlled sinking of the Paks nuclear power plant on Saturday to raise the level of the Danube River, which is used to cool the reactors. Instead of using rocks to sink the tugboats, they are filling them with water using pumps.
An artificial threshold on the Danube was urgently being built in the vicinity of the city of Paksh to raise the level of water needed to cool the nuclear power plant.
The nuclear power plant is already far from operating at full capacity due to cooling problems. The shallowing of the Danube has jeopardized the operation of the Paks nuclear power plant, which provides a significant part of Hungary's electricity. The authorities are already taking urgent measures. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Bloomberg. After the Hungarian authorities began to sink two barges, the water level in the Danube…
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