Hungary To Sink Two Barges Near Nuclear Plant To Raise Danube Water Levels For Cooling

Daily News Hungary.

Danube River.

Hungarian authorities will sink two barges in the Danube on Saturday to raise water levels near the Paks nuclear power plant and prevent one of its two remaining operating turbines from being shut down, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said.

The plant is currently operating at around 25% of its capacity due to a historic drought and record-low water levels in the Danube, which supplies cooling water to the facility.

Magyar said in a Facebook post that forecasts showed the river could fall to a critical level by early Monday, forcing one of the two operating turbines to be shut down.

“The Danube is receding... The controlled sinking of the barges will begin shortly,” he said.

Hungary’s government said on Wednesday that it would construct a submerged, dam-like structure known as a riverbed sill across the bottom of the river channel to regulate water flow. The project is expected to take several weeks.

In the short term, two 80-metre (260-foot) barges will be submerged near the nuclear plant to raise water levels and allow its two turbines to continue operating while the sill is being built, the government said.

Neighbouring Romania shut down its last operating reactor on Thursday because of low Danube water levels. The drought has also raised concerns in both Hungary and Romania over how nuclear power plants can adapt to increasingly extreme climate conditions.

Source: Reuters



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