Droughts, wildfires continue to impact power plants in Europe

The effects of this summer's historic heatwave continue to be felt across Europe. Soaring temperatures and drought in the region have led to elevated river temperatures, low river levels, and wildfires, which have significantly impacted nuclear power plants across the continent.

France's Electricité de France has reported elevated river temperatures which have forced production cuts, including recent cuts at Golfech, and nuclear power plants in Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, have faced exceptional challenges in recent days.

Power cuts along the Danube: Record-low water levels of the Danube River could prompt the shutdown of Hungary's Paks power plant-a first in its 44 years of service. The 1,916-MWe, four-unit Paks is Hungary's only nuclear power plant and, according to the International Energy Agency, generates 42 percent of the country's electricity. But as of Sunday, it was only producing 240 MW of power.

In a video posted on his social media pages, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said "the hardest five days are ahead" as the country grapples with the low Danube levels and high energy demand. As of early Monday, Paks's last operating turbine was still running and the hope was it could continue to do so Tuesday. Water management forecasts have "become slightly more optimistic," Magyar said. However, while efforts to voluntarily reduce energy consumption in the country had reduced electricity demand by 700 MW on Sunday, the prime minister noted that the possibility of shutting down Paks still looms.

Elsewhere along the Danube, the Romanian navy safely executed controlled blasts to divert the flow of the river toward the 1,300-MWe Cernavoda power plant, where one of the two reactors is shut down. On July 31, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said he approved an allocation from the government's budget reserve fund for technical measures to maintain the water level needed to keep Cernavoda's last operating reactor-and the country's sole operating nuclear power plant-on line.

Wildfires near Sizewell:Wildfires at Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, England, last week were in close proximity to Sizewell B nuclear power plant. Reports suggest, however, that the fires were never a serious threat to the facility. On July 30, the Suffolk County Council said there was "no current risk to Sizewell B, due to the distance from the fire and the direction it is traveling (Easterly)." One day later, the Suffolk County Council continued to say there was no cause for concern. As of Monday, officials said the incident at Dunwich was stable, but fire crews are expected to remain at the scene for the next few days.

Officials for the Sizewell C EPR construction project also responded to the fire threat, saying on July 30 that they were closely monitoring the Dunwich fire. They noted at the time that it posed "a low risk to Sizewell C due to its distance from the site and the watercourses in between." Nonetheless, they said they will "continue to monitor the situation closely and provide further support where needed."