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paks nuclear plant shutdown danube drought

Paks draws water from the Danube to cool its reactors, a design common to riverside nuclear plants around the world. That design assumes the river will maintain a minimum depth near the plant's intake structures. According to the BBC, record-low Danube levels now mean the plant's suction nozzles can no longer reach the river at all, a mechanical failure point that has nothing to do with the reactors themselves and everything to do with how far the water has receded.

• Paks has operated continuously for 44 years without a shutdown of this kind.
• The plant typically supplies roughly 40 to 50% of Hungary's total electricity generation.
• The closure is caused by low river levels affecting the cooling intake, not a fault within the plant.
• The shutdown coincides with a broader European heatwave that is simultaneously raising electricity demand for cooling.