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Drought forces Romania to shut down Cernavoda nuclear reactor
Romanian utility Nuclearelectrica initiated a controlled shutdown of the plant’s second reactor on Aug. 13, cutting supply from a facility that helps provide about a fifth of Romania’s electricity.
Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear plant has moved offline after drought worsened water shortages needed to cool reactors, according to OilPrice.
Oil-related reporting said the country spent more than 2 million euros in an effort to move additional water toward the Cernavoda site, but it was not enough to prevent an outage. On Aug. 13, Nuclearelectrica began a controlled shutdown of the plant’s second reactor, the first time the drought has taken Cernavoda fully offline since 2003.
The disruption is also reflected in electricity use in the country, with reporting that Dacia and Ford idled Romanian factories to free up power for other users.
OilPrice also linked the broader pattern of grid stress to forecasts for a strengthening El Niño, citing the World Meteorological Organization, which expects sea surface temperature anomalies in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific to exceed 2.9 degrees Celsius through August to October and peak in November. The outlet added that a positive Indian Ocean Dipole is developing, which can intensify drought and fire risk around the Indian Ocean basin.