The dried banks of the Danube River are exposed due to the record low water level caused by extreme heat and drought in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Zsolt Szigetvary/EPA
Aug. 5 (UPI) — Hungary is facing an energy crisis as the Danube River, which cools the nation’s largest power plant, dries to record lows.
Water levels of the 1,800-mile river, which flows through 10 countries in Europe, has fallen amid a three-month drought across the continent.
The Danube is an integral component in the running of Paks, Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, as it flows into the reactor and cools it down.
Three of the plant’s four reactors were not in operation on Wednesday, while the fourth is operating at 50% power, CBS News reported.
The plant is responsible for generating half the electricity needed by the country’s 10 million people.
“Several factors will determine whether Hungary’s most important power plant can avoid a complete shutdown in the coming days,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, CBS News reported.
“There are a few critical days left — today and tomorrow are certainly that,” Magyar added, according to the outlet. “I ask everyone to continue the national unity that has developed in the country. Let’s do what our country demands.”
But the drying of the Danube has brought a silver lining for some. Residents and researchers have marveled at several discoveries that have emerged as water levels drop.
In Serbia, researchers have found some 200 boats that had been hidden deep in the Danube, including World War II-era Nazi warships, Smithsonian magazine reported.
A ship that likely sank in 1937 was exposed in Croatia.
And in Bulgaria, residents discovered the remains of a woolly mammoth.