Romania has shut down its only nuclear plant, Cernavoda, in a rare move prompted by a lack of cooling water from the Danube River. Scorching heat and low rainfall in recent weeks left the river at record lows, forcing a controlled shutdown of the plant's reactors. This marks only the second time in three decades that the facility has been shut down.
The Cernavoda plant usually generates 20 percent of the electricity for Romania's 19 million residents. The shutdown poses immediate problems for neighboring Moldova, which relies on Romanian power to cover its own electricity shortages.
The crisis extends across the region, as nearly two-thirds of the Danube has recorded flow rates that are the lowest for the month of July in 34 years. While Romania has been forced to shut down, Hungary is racing to dam the Danube in an attempt to keep its Paks plant online as a persistent drought hampers the cooling of reactors.
The Cernavoda plant is not expected to restart for at least 10 days. To compensate for the loss of a fifth of its electricity production, Romania plans to rely on imports and alternative power sources.