Historically, such a situation rarely happens on the Danube River, but human intervention is also not small here. This was stated to BNT by former Minister of the Environment Emil Dimitrov - Revizoro.
Due to the historically low level of the Danube, the Paks NPP in Hungary was unprecedentedly stopped for security reasons, and on Friday (July 31) the Romanian government of the outgoing Prime Minister Ilie Bolozhan announced a state of heightened alert at the national level in the energy sector for the entire month of August.
Due to the emergency situation, the country's military carried out a controlled explosion in order to ensure a greater flow of water for the needs of the Cherna Voda NPP. Revizoro stressed that 20% of Romania's electricity comes from the Black Water, which is dependent on the river.
Both the authorities in Romania and Hungary have called on major energy consumers to voluntarily reduce their consumption.
Serbia is also experiencing problems due to the drying up of the Danube River. President Aleksandar Vučić announced yesterday that the Pančevo refinery of the Serbian oil company NIS may have to stop its operations due to the low level of the Danube River.
“The main cooling of the “Kozloduy“ nuclear power plant comes from the river itself. There is still a long chance for the plant to operate, there is no danger of shutdown for now,“ he also assured.