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Romania Restarts Coal Plant as Danube Drought Forces Nuclear Shutdown

By Michael Kern – Aug 18, 2026, https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Romania-Restarts-Coal-Plant-as-Danube-Drought-Forces-Nuclear-Shutdown.html

Romania has this week restarted a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant to partially offset the generation lost by the closure of nuclear electricity output after the low water level on the Danube river forced a shutdown of the country’s only nuclear power plant.

Romania, which lost 20% of its power generation with the closure of both rectors at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant, has restarted the Rovinari Group 4 coal-fired power unit. The additional coal-fired generation is adding nearly 300 megawatts (MW) to the National Energy System, Cristian Bu?oi, State Secretary at Romania’s Ministry of Energy, told local media.

The two reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant have 680 MW installed capacity each, and typically generate about 20% of Romania’s power output.

However, the lowest water levels on the Danube in 90 years forced Romania in recent weeks to shut down both reactors amid insufficient water supply to cool the reactors.

At the end of last week, Romania began shutting down its only remaining operating nuclear reactor as record-low water levels on the Danube have forced nuclear power shutdowns in central and eastern Europe in recent weeks.

Nuclearelectrica launched the process to disconnect the one operating reactor at Romania’s only nuclear plant at Cernavoda on the Danube, the Romanian state-owned nuclear power plant operator said August 13.

Nuclearelectrica had shut down the other reactor at Cernavoda at the end of July as scorching temperatures and drought in Europe this summer have sank the water levels on the Danube to the lowest in 90 years.

“We do not foresee a restart within the next ten days,” the director of the Cernavoda plant, Romeo Urjan, told AFP last Thursday.

The low water levels on the Danube has affected Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, too. Hungary is sinking barges in the Danube to keep its Paks nuclear power plant, which generates a third of the country’s electricity, running.

August 21, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, EUROPE