Hungary and Romania have drastically reduced output at their nuclear power plants due to insufficient water flow from the Danube river, which has sunk to historically low levels.
Hungary's Paks nuclear plant, located 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) south of the capital, Budapest, cut output by 50% at reactor 2 on Thursday morning.
The plant operates four Russian-built reactors with a combined capacity of 2 gigawatts. Output had already been cut by 254 megawatts on reactor 1 on Monday, before reactor 3 powered down on Wednesday.
Down river in Romania, one of two reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear plant, 160 kilometers east of Bucharest, was shut down earlier this week due to lower water levels.
The Romanian Energy Ministry was set to shut down the plant's second reactor on Thursday due to "unfavorable developments in hydraulic conditions" – but ultimately managed to keep it operating overnight.
