Hungary's Prime Minister Péter Magyar says he is optimistic that the Paks nuclear power station will be able to restart soon as water levels on the Danube slowly rise.
Hungary shut down its sole nuclear power plant, which relies on the waters of the Danube for cooling, on Sunday because of low water levels.
The waters of the Danube, Europe's second longest river, have dropped in parts to a record low due to successive heatwaves that have parched the continent since May.
"The good news is that we are now nine centimetres above the Danube’s Sunday low, and rain is expected over the Austrian catchment areas. The turbine at Paks is operating. Even so, on today’s scorching day we will still very much need people to cut their consumption voluntarily," Magyar wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the prime minister visited the nuclear power plant to be briefed on the situation and said conditions at Paks had stabilised once the Danube’s water level stopped falling below the critical threshold and then began to rise slowly.
