Romania delays Danube barge plan as drought threatens nuclear reactor operations

Cernavoda, Romania. Romania delayed until Friday a plan to sink four rock-filled barges in the Danube, citing unsafe conditions, as it seeks to redirect water to the country’s only operating nuclear reactor amid drought and low electricity supplies.

Record-low Danube water levels have already forced one reactor at the Cernavoda nuclear plant to shut down, while authorities have taken emergency measures to keep the second reactor operating.

Emergency measures

Romania has detonated a rock obstruction in the river and carried out riverbed dredging to improve water flow to the plant, whose turbines are cooled by Danube water.

The measures bought additional time, but Nuclearelectrica executive Romeo Urjan said the remaining reactor could be shut down within five to six days unless the barge operation succeeds.

“If the barges generate a water surplus this deadline extends to nine to 10 days,” Urjan, the plant’s director, told private television station Digi24.

Romania’s state water management agency had planned to begin controlled submersion of the four barges individually on Thursday. The operation is intended to create a barrier and divert water from a river branch towards the plant, with an effect expected a day later, Urjan said.

Power supply concerns

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Thursday that the government had prepared a phased system for reducing electricity supply to industrial consumers, with prior notice, if necessary.

He said no such cuts were expected over the next five to seven days, or for as long as the nuclear reactor remained operational.

The two Cernavoda reactors, operated by Romania’s Nuclearelectrica ROSNN.BX, account for about one-fifth of Romania’s electricity production. Hydropower facilities are also affected by the drought, while energy imports are limited by similar conditions in neighbouring countries.

Record-low river flow

Danube flow in Romania fell to an all-time low of 1,400 cubic metres per second on Thursday, about one-third of the normal August average.

Cernavoda and Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant both use Danube water for cooling. The conditions have prompted Bucharest and Budapest to increase electricity imports and urge households and businesses to reduce consumption.

ING Bank said in a note that the Danube works represented “an extraordinary response,” but added that they should not be mistaken for an energy strategy.