Hungary’s only nuclear power plant was fully shut down early on Sunday for the first time in 44 years because water levels in the Danube had fallen too low.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on X that, because of a further drop in the river’s level, one of the plant’s two remaining generating units would be taken offline at 01:30 local time on Sunday.
He said the plant’s output would then fall to just 240 megawatts, adding that the Paks nuclear power station would be completely shut down for the first time in 44 years.
Located about 100 kilometres south of Budapest, the Paks plant supplies around 40% of Hungary’s annual electricity generation.
On Friday, the plant operator had warned that falling Danube levels could force a full shutdown by the middle of next week.
The government had separately said the move could come as early as the weekend.
Paks has four reactors built with Soviet-era technology, and they are cooled using water pumped from the Danube.
The river has reached historically low levels in some places after a prolonged lack of rainfall and extreme heat across Europe since spring.
The situation could worsen further, with temperatures of 40C° to 42C° forecast in Hungary in the coming days.
