None
ID
Hungary Narrowly Avoids Full Nuclear Shutdown; Slovenia Plant Still at Full Capacity
['Nicholas Watson', 'Vuk Tesija', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Balkan Insight
Hungary managed to avoid a complete shutdown of its sole nuclear power plant on Tuesday morning as the low water levels in the Danube river caused by the drought began rising, the country’s prime minister, Peter Magyar, announced on X.
“Around 1:30 a.m., we came within a couple of millimeters of a complete shutdown of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, but then the water level stopped dropping, and by morning it had risen by 1.5 centimeters.
The problem for Paks is that it uses a direct, once-through (open-cycle) cooling system, which pumps water directly from the Danube to chill its condensers.
The system is shared by another nuclear plant situated on the Danube, Romania’s Cernavoda.
By contrast, Slovenia’s Krsko Nuclear Power Plant (NEK), built using US Westinghouse technology, continues to operate at full capacity with the cooling tower system operating and respecting the restrictions associated with the Sava River, NEK announced on Monday.