Hungary has suspended operations at the Paks nuclear power plant, the country’s sole nuclear facility, due to critically low water levels in the Danube River.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced the shutdown on Friday, marking the first time in the plant’s 44-year history that it has been forced offline.
The facility, which generates nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, requires substantial volumes of river water for reactor cooling, a resource that has become scarce amid record-breaking heat and severe drought conditions across the region.
The loss of Paks represents a significant supply shock for the Hungarian grid and introduces volatility risk for Central European power markets.
With the plant offline, Hungary must rely on alternative generation sources and potential imports to meet domestic demand.
This structural constraint coincides with peak summer energy usage, likely driving up wholesale electricity prices in the region and increasing pressure on neighboring grids to balance the shortfall.