Hungary to sink two barges near nuclear plant to raise water level, ensure cooling
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Construction crews working along the banks of the River Danube in Hungary on Aug 14, near the Paks Nuclear Power Plant.
PHOTO: AFP
- Hungary will sink two barges near the Paks nuclear plant to raise Danube water levels and ensure cooling amid historic drought.
- The Paks plant runs at 25% capacity due to low river levels, while neighbouring Romania shut its last reactor on Aug 13.
- Hungary plans a riverbed sill to manage water flow, expected to raise water levels by up to 1m, while barges raise it by 20cm short term.
AI generated
BUDAPEST – Hungarian authorities are expected to start sinking two barges later in the day to raise the water level at the Paks nuclear plant in the Danube, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Aug 14.
The plant currently operates at around 25 per cent of its capacity because of a historic drought and record low water levels on the Danube river, from which the nuclear plant draws its coolant.
Neighbouring Romania shut down its last working reactor on Aug 13 as drought this summer has wreaked havoc in European power production, shipping and public health systems.
The drought also raised questions in Hungary and Romania about how to adapt atomic energy to an increasingly extreme climate.
Hungary’s government announced on Aug 12 that it would build a riverbed “sill”, a submerged, dam-like structure built crosswise on the bottom of a river channel, to manage water flow. That will take weeks.
The government also said that two 80m barges would be submerged near the nuclear plant to raise the water level in the short term so that the plant’s two turbines could be kept working while the riverbed sill was under construction.
“The controlled sinking (of the barges) is expected to begin late this afternoon in order to raise the water level on the Danube,” Magyar said in a Facebook video from Paks on Aug 14.
The sinking of the barges could raise the water level by 20cm in the short term, while the river sill is expected to raise it by up to 1m. REUTERS