Hungary’s sole nuclear power station, Paks, will shut down next week because the Danube has fallen to a level that can no longer reliably supply cooling water, Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced. The closure, expected on Tuesday or Wednesday, follows days of reduced output and comes as the river at Budapest stands a full decimetre below the previous record low set in 2018. The Danube has retreated 15 to 20 metres from its normal shoreline, exposing bridge foundations and turning bathing areas to mud.

The shutdown is the most acute symptom of a prolonged drought and exceptional heatwave across central Europe. Scientists attribute the scarce rainfall and very high summer temperatures to human-caused climate change. On the Rhine, a stretch near Kaub briefly touched its 2018 historic low, and the gauge at Düsseldorf is forecast to fall to 21 centimetres on Saturday, two centimetres below the October 2018 record. Dutch authorities report the river is already at its lowest ever level at the German border. Austrian and Slovak hydrological forecasts are described by Magyar as “not positive at all”, meaning the Paks outage is likely to be prolonged.

Freight transport on both arteries has been severely curtailed. Barges on the Rhine and Danube are carrying only 15 to 20 per cent of their normal loads to avoid running aground, sending shipping prices sharply higher just as the grain harvest demands peak capacity. Johan Woxenius, professor of shipping economics at the University of Gothenburg, noted that similar disruptions occurred in 2018, 2022 and now 2026, making it hard for logistics operators to ignore the recurrence. The German construction federation warned that the Rhine is being “pushed to the limit” and called for urgent investment to make waterways resilient to climate change. Some media assessments suggest the bottlenecks could drag on Germany’s quarterly GDP.

Energy systems are under direct strain. Paks provides roughly 40 per cent of Hungary’s annual electricity consumption; Romania has already shut one nuclear reactor for the same reason and will close a second. The Hungarian government has asked companies to reduce electricity use, banned outdoor fires and ordered decorative lighting on public buildings to be switched off. In Budapest, AP photographer Gábor Kertész documented the exposed foundations of the Margareta Bridge, calling the change “shocking” and linking it to climate change. Further south, where the Danube forms the border between Romania and Bulgaria, fishermen told AFP the water is so low one can wade between the two countries.

The next factual milestone is the restart threshold at Paks: the plant can only begin a gradual return to service once the Danube level at the site again exceeds minus 133 centimetres. With hydrological forecasts offering no short-term relief, the closure is expected to last well beyond the middle of the week.