BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant cut output at three of its four reactors by a combined 240 MW due to the rising temperature of the Danube river, the plant’s operator said late on Thursday.
It said the temperature of the Danube, whose water is used to cool the plant, reached 29.72 degrees Celsius on Thursday, forcing the cut in output from 1430 GMT. The operator did not specify when power could be restored to nominal levels.
The Paks plant has four Russian-built VVER 440 reactors with a combined capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. The reactors became operational between 1982 and 1987 and are scheduled to retire in 2032-2037.
Hungary plans to expand the plant, with Russia’s Rosatom building two VVER reactors with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each, in addition to the currently working four reactors.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
