Cernavodă remains offline: the Danube's water level is at a critical threshold for cooling the Romanian nuclear plant.

Romania's Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant continues to face serious technical and logistical challenges due to the extremely low water level of the Danube, which on October 10 dropped to just 3 centimeters above the operational minimum required for pumping cooling water. Both reactors remain in a safe shutdown state and the competent state authorities are taking emergency hydrological measures to preserve the stability of the system 

According to data from Romania's National Water Administration (Apele Române – ANAR), the water level at Cernavoda reached 259 cm, while the safe water intake threshold stands at 262 cm. The Danube flow at the entry into Romania fell below 1,200 cubic meters per second, which is barely a third of the multi-year average for this time of year. Because of this, emergency release of water from reservoirs in the Mostiștea Valley was ordered, as well as coordinated releases from the Olt and Argeș rivers, in order to temporarily increase the inflow of water into the plant's distribution basin.

Along with that, the National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) prepared a plan to install a temporary modular barrier made of barges and pontoons along a 170-meter stretch of the canal, with the deployment of high-capacity mobile pumps that would pump at least 6.5 cubic meters of water per second directly into the plant's distribution basin.

CANDU Reactors

The Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant uses two reactors of the Canadian design CANDU-6, each with a capacity of about 700 megawatts. Unlike standard pressurized water reactors (PWR) which use enriched uranium as fuel and ordinary (light) water as a moderator, CANDU reactors use natural, unenriched uranium, while heavy water serves as both moderator and coolant in the primary circuit, which is a far better moderator and enables much better neutron economy. 

As for safety – the company Nuclearelectrica emphasizes that the situation is under complete control and that there is no threat to nuclear safety, since the plant has multiple independent cooling-system levels.

And according to statements from the Romanian Ministry of Energy, restarting the reactor will not be considered until long-term stable hydrological conditions are ensured. For now, Romania is forced to rely on expensive electricity imports.  

And we remembered the case and reminded of it because mainstream media had forgotten it. Thus, systematically – and somewhat sensationalist – this was reported about in the summer, and today it has fallen out of focus although the situation, as we can see, has not changed much (at least for the Romanian nuclear power plant). Therefore, the central question remains: how is the nuclear industry preparing for climate change? 

S.A.