A drop in the water level of the Danube River has put Romania’s nuclear power plant on the brink of a complete shutdown.

🔸An unprecedented drop in the Danube River’s water level has also placed Romania’s last active reactor on the verge of shutting down.

🔸Romania’s state power generation company said on Tuesday, 20 Mordad, that with the continued decline in the Danube River’s water level, its last operating reactor may also be shut down within the next two or three days.

🔸The decision was made as weather forecasts indicate that the Danube River water level — which, after the Volga, is Europe’s second-longest river — will continue to fall throughout this week.

🔸The unprecedented drop in the Danube River’s water level had led Romania to take its other reactor offline in late last month. Romania’s state nuclear power generation company operates two reactors at the Cernavodă power plant alongside the Danube River, which together produce about one-fifth of Romania’s electricity.

🔸The Danube River, nearly 3,000 kilometers long, passes through 10 countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.

🔸Romanian officials recently blew up a stone barrier to increase the flow of water toward the Cernavodă nuclear power plant, dredged the riverbed, and sank four barges carrying stones in the river so that, by creating a dam, they could divert the water flow toward the power plant.

🔸The Romanian Ministry of Energy announced that these actions on Sunday, 18 Mordad increased the water level around the reactor by four centimeters, allowing the reactor to continue operating for at least another nine days.

🔸However, the state water resource management organization announced on Monday, 19 Mordad that new forecasts show that rainfall upstream will have no impact on Romania. Romania is the last country the Danube passes through before entering the Black Sea.

🔸The Romanian government has also allocated more funding to the Ministry of Transport to carry out dredging operations and deepen the riverbed in the branch where the reactor is located.

🔸Read the full version of this report on the Radio Farda website.