HWBRIEF
Hungary's state operator placed Paks at Stage 3 of 4 low water stages after the river fell 28 cm below the prior record; full shutdown could follow within 24 72 hours if forecasts hold.
The Paks nuclear plant on the Danube, Hungary's only operating nuclear station, was designed in the early 1980s around a 100-year minimum water level. On 30 July 2026, the river at the site sat 28 centimetres below the prior record low set in 2018, which was already one metre beneath that design floor (WNN; MVM Paks statement, 2026.07.30).
Operator MVM has placed Paks at Stage 3 of its four-stage low-water protocol. A Stage 4 event, a full operational shutdown, is a realistic possibility if the river keeps falling, with a 24-72 hour window in the company's calculations (Infostart.hu; Világgazdaság).
This is an operational, not a safety event. Safe-state hold needs roughly 5 cubic metres of cooling water per minute; running Paks's four VVER-440 reactors takes about 100 cubic metres per second from the river (DW). Pumps are on standby, and MVM says units can restart within a few days. Preparatory work to lower intake pipes is already underway.
MVM cites climate-driven low water and river-bed deepening as the cause. Romania's Cernavodă plant on the same river faces parallel pressure (WNN), a regional hydrology event, not a single-plant failure.
The open question: whether the 100-year design minimum still holds as a planning baseline in a warming, channel-deepening river.