Hungary fends off heatwave-induced nuclear shutdown

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Monday said his country's sole nuclear power plant remained operational for now, after a sweltering heatwave nearly forced its shutdown.

The nuclear plant in Paks, south of Budapest, is cooled by water pumped from the Danube river, which has dropped to record low levels because of a lack of rain and successive heatwaves since May.

Its four reactors normally supply around a third of the central European country's electricity needs, but were forced to gradually reduce their output last week due to the falling water levels.

The plant's second-to-last unit was taken offline early on Sunday, with Magyar announcing that the entire plant would be shut down in the coming hours for the first time in 44 years.

However, Magyar on Monday said engineers had been able reduce the amount of cooling water needed to keep one turbine online and "everyone is working to keep operations running".

"The water management forecasts for the coming days have become slightly more optimistic," he added.

The government plans to make up for the energy shortfall with a combination of voluntary reductions from large consumers, costly imports and asking the public to cut back on electricity during peak evening hours.

In neighbouring Romania, authorities are also trying to avert a complete shutdown of that country's nuclear power plant, which is similarly cooled by the Danube.

On Monday, a controlled blast was carried out on a rock formation in the hopes of increasing the flow of water toward the plant in Cernavoda, where one reactor has already been shut down.

Romania's government has also increased its electricity imports and called on companies to reduce electricity consumption, including shifting their production to off-peak hours.