Romania Fully Shuts Down Its Only Nuclear Plant as Danube Water Levels Fall

Romania's Energy Ministry said on Thursday, August 13, 2026 (22 Mordad 1405), according to Mediafax, as carried by Ecoiran citing Tasnim, that the Cernavoda nuclear plant, Romania's only nuclear facility and normally the source of about 20 percent of the country's electricity, has been fully shut down. The ministry said the plant's first reactor unit was taken offline in late July due to a shortage of cooling water, and the second unit went offline the same Thursday.

Cristian Bușoi, Romania's energy ministry secretary, said power supply to some large industrial consumers could be restricted in the worst case, but that this would have no impact on households, and that Romania is negotiating electricity imports from Ukraine and Bulgaria. About ten days earlier, Romanian authorities had tried to boost water flow to the plant with a controlled rock blast in the Danube riverbed, a measure that only bought the second reactor a few extra days of operation. Cernavoda produces about 10 million megawatt hours of electricity a year; its two CANDU reactors entered service in 1996 and 2007.