Hungary has shut down its only nuclear power plant for the first time in 44 years, after historically low water levels on the Danube left the river unable to adequately cool the facility's reactors.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced the closure, saying a further drop in the river's level had forced authorities to take the last of two remaining active units offline. He said in a post on the platform X that the plant's output would first be reduced to 240 megawatts before operations stopped entirely.
The Paks nuclear plant sits about 100 kilometres south of Budapest and is Hungary's most important power generation facility, covering roughly 40 percent of the country's annual electricity needs. Its four reactors were built using Soviet technology and depend on water drawn from the Danube for cooling.
The company managing the plant had warned on Friday that a complete shutdown would be unavoidable within days if the river continued to fall. The government had left open the possibility that the closure could come as soon as the weekend.
Extreme weather blamed
The crisis is the result of exceptional weather conditions that have gripped Europe since spring. Prolonged drought, combined with successive heat waves, has pushed the Danube to historic lows at multiple points along its course. The falling levels have disrupted river navigation and are now affecting critical energy infrastructure as well.
The shutdown marks the first time Paks has halted operations since it began generating power 44 years ago. The plant's closure raises immediate questions about Hungary's electricity supply, given its dominant share of national generation capacity.
