BUDAPEST, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Hungary started to switch back on a turbine at the Paks nuclear plant on Monday after a rise in water levels on the Danube river which cools the plant, offering some relief to the facility supplying nearly half the country’s electricity.
The Danube fell to record lows in recent weeks amid a prolonged heatwave and drought across much of Europe, forcing the plant to operate at only around 10% of its capacity with only one of its eight turbines left running.
Droughts this summer have wreaked havoc in European power production, shipping and public health systems, and the hit to the region’s economy can already be measured in the hundreds of billions of euros.
Similar problems in Romania for instance have forced the declaration of a state of energy emergency throughout August, and the flow of the Danube has been redirected to allow its sole nuclear plant to continue operating for the next few days.
DANUBE RISE MAY BE ONLY TEMPORARY
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Monday that work to restart a second turbine at Paks began after the Danube rose 19 centimetres above last week’s low.
The second turbine was expected to start generating electricity on Monday evening, he said on Facebook.
Magyar flagged the possibility of increasing output last week, saying that expected rainfall in Austria could raise Danube levels, but cautioned that the rise would be temporary.
Magyar also said last week that the government was working on longer-term solutions, including reviewing the planned Paks 2 expansion of the plant as current designs also make the planned new plant dependent on cooling water from the Danube.
It was key to keep the nuclear plant working, Magyar said last week, as “the Hungarian economy cannot work without the plant for months.”
The government has also decided to diversify its energy supply, with Magyar saying the government will tender 700 megawatts of wind power generation capacity by August 31 and develop 4 gigawatts of wind capacity by 2030.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by David Holmes)
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