What happened

A severe drought and heatwave drove the Danube River to record-low levels, cutting the cooling water available to Romania's only nuclear plant, Cernavodă. Unit 1 was shut down and disconnected from the grid on the morning of 28 July 2026; Unit 2 was initially kept online after an analysis found its operating parameters still allowed safe continued operation. Authorities tried several emergency river-diversion measures to keep Unit 2 running, including blowing up an underwater rock formation near Izvoarele and, in early August, using the navy to clear the Bala Canal and sinking four rock-filled barges to build an underwater barrier redirecting flow toward the plant's intake. Those measures ultimately proved insufficient: operator Nuclearelectrica carried out a controlled shutdown of Unit 2 on 13 August 2026, saying the decision was driven by the continued fall in the Danube's level and stressing that keeping both units in a safe shutdown state has no impact on nuclear safety, personnel, the environment or the population. Romania's Ministry of Energy said electricity demand would be fully covered by alternative sources and imports while both reactors remain offline; acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan had already declared a nationwide energy-sector state of alert for August, and the same power crunch led Romania's government to ask roughly 80 major industrial electricity users to cut consumption, with Dacia and Ford both temporarily halting production at their Romanian car plants (using the pause for planned maintenance) until 19 August, a step officials said would save about 200 MW. The drought produced parallel effects elsewhere on the Danube: Hungary shut its only nuclear plant, Paks, entirely (see the separate Paks record), while Bulgaria's Kozloduy plant continued operating at planned capacity, with Bulgarian officials coordinating with Serbia to release water from the Djerdap 1 (Iron Gates) dam upstream to keep river levels above Kozloduy's cooling threshold. No radiological release was reported at any of the three plants; this remains a drought-driven operational and cooling-water event, not a nuclear-safety accident. The situation will depend on whether rainfall returns and the Danube recovers enough to allow the reactors to resume operation.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.