Hungary's emergency plan: Stone wall to restart reactors

Henrik Samuelsson/TT 

 

Published 09.01

  

The Paks nuclear power plant, surrounded by an almost dried-up Danube. Picture from July. Photo: Daniel Kiss/AP/TT

Barges and 150,000 cubic meters of rock. These are Hungary's desperate measures to restart the Paks nuclear power plant, which normally accounts for a third of the country's electricity supply.

Paks has been almost completely shut down due to the record low levels of the Danube, whose river water is needed to cool the reactors.

- The low levels of the Danube are putting enormous pressure on Hungarian households and businesses, says Prime Minister Péter Magyar on social media.

After an extraordinary government meeting on site at Paks, he announces that 80-meter-long barges will immediately be lowered into the river, raising the level by 20 centimeters.

The next step is to transport 150,000 cubic meters of rock to the river barriers.

“We have ordered work around the clock,” says Magyar.

If it works, it is hoped that the water level at the nuclear reactors will rise by one meter, so that the plant can be put into full operation again.