Romania Shuts Both Nuclear Reactors as Europe’s Rivers Fall
Romania began a controlled shutdown of Unit 2 at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant on Thursday, August 13, as the Danube continued to fall. Unit 1 had already been shut down in late July, leaving Romania’s only nuclear plant offline.
Operator Nuclearelectrica said the Unit 2 decision was caused by the “continued significant decrease” in the Danube’s level. The company described the action as a controlled operating measure and said keeping both units in safe shutdown had no impact on nuclear-safety parameters, personnel, the environment or the public.
Romania’s Energy Ministry said electricity supply was expected to be fully covered by alternative sources and imports. The plant normally supplies about 20% of Romania’s electricity generation when both reactors are operating, according to the Associated Press.
Why low water affects nuclear plants
Nuclear reactors generate heat that must be removed through cooling systems. At Cernavoda, Danube water is part of that process. When river levels fall too far, operators can lose the operating margin needed to draw and circulate water under normal conditions.
The reported shutdown is not a nuclear accident. It is a precautionary response to river conditions. The immediate effect is a change in Romania’s electricity supply mix, not a reported blackout. The duration of the outage will determine how long the country relies more heavily on other generators and cross-border electricity purchases.
Hungary is trying to keep Paks operating
Farther upstream, Hungary announced emergency river-engineering measures to protect the Paks nuclear power plant, which uses Danube water to cool its four reactors.
In an announcement reported by the Associated Press on August 12, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said authorities would build a bed sill near the plant using about 145,000 cubic meters of rock. The structure was intended to slow the current and raise upstream water levels by as much as 1 meter.
Officials also planned to move two 80-meter barges to the site and consider sinking them to raise the water level by up to a further 20 centimeters near the plant’s cooling pumps. The decision on whether to sink the barges was expected on Friday, August 14. The measures were therefore announced or planned interventions, not a completed permanent solution, and their effectiveness requires follow-up.
AP reported that Paks was operating at little more than 10% of its 2,000-megawatt capacity because of low water levels and normally supplies around one-third of Hungary’s electricity. Those figures describe the plant’s reported status at the time of the August 12 report; they should not be treated as a confirmed end-of-day status for August 14.
Rhine freight is also under pressure
The same low-water pattern is affecting Europe’s river-based supply chains. In a customer notice, shipping operator OOCL said significantly lower Rhine levels were disrupting inland container transport.
OOCL said exceptionally low water had created force-majeure conditions under which barge operators were no longer contractually obliged to transport containers at standard rates and conditions. The company also warned that low-water surcharges could change at short notice and asked customers to review or cancel some inland transport bookings if they did not want to incur additional costs.
For importers and exporters, the practical effects can include smaller cargo loads, delayed deliveries, canceled bookings, rerouting and higher logistics costs. The disruption can reach businesses that depend on river transport for containers, chemicals, fuel, grain and other bulk or industrial goods.
A regional drought signal, with limits
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reported that drought conditions worsened across much of Europe in mid-June, with alert conditions worsening in Hungary and Romania. But the assessment was based on data from June 11-17 and analyzed on July 3. It is useful regional context, not a same-day measurement of Danube or Rhine levels.
The European Drought Observatory also warns that some hydrological model outputs have accuracy limitations in parts of eastern Europe. The immediate conditions described by officials and operators involve prolonged heat, low rainfall and falling river levels. They illustrate a broader climate risk, but the available sources do not establish that climate change alone caused this particular 2026 drought.
What to watch next
The next important indicators are the duration of the Cernavoda outage, Danube-level recovery, the current operating status of Paks, the result of Hungary’s planned interventions and any expansion of Rhine navigation restrictions.
Together, the developments show how water stress can move quickly from an environmental condition into an energy, infrastructure and supply-chain problem. Even where officials say electricity demand remains covered, low rivers can reduce generation, constrain freight capacity and add uncertainty to the cost and timing of goods moving through Europe.
Sources
- Associated Press — Romania begins shutdown of nuclear plant's second reactor
- OOCL — Low Water Levels on the River Rhine
- European Commission Joint Research Centre — European Drought Observatory
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