Overview
- Hungary began sinking two 80-metre barges on Saturday to raise water at the Paks plant and the prime minister said the move has so far lifted the local level by about 1 centimetre.
- Paks is operating at roughly 25% capacity because record-low Danube flows from this summer’s drought have reduced the river water the plant uses to cool reactors.
- Official forecasts indicate water could fall to a critical level by early Monday that would force one of the plant’s two remaining turbines offline if short-term fixes fail.
- The government has ordered a weeks-long riverbed ‘sill’ built with about 150,000 cubic metres of stone and assigned 100 troops to work round the clock on the project.
- The measures respond to immediate energy-security risks after Romania shut its last reactor for the same reason and they raise near-term needs for power imports, thermal backups and policy choices about future plant siting and expansion.