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Hungary's Paks nuclear plant may reach full output by Wednesday, PM says

Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced that the Paks nuclear station, which restarted reactor 3 on Saturday, could be back at full 2-gigawatt capacity by Wednesday.

Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant restarted its third reactor late on Saturday, and Prime Minister Peter Magyar indicated that the plant could resume its full 2-gigawatt capacity by Wednesday, a day or two earlier than expected. At present the station is supplying roughly 800 megawatts, with four of eight turbines already generating electricity. Earlier this month output had been cut to just over 10% because a historic drought lowered Danube water levels, threatening a complete shutdown.

Rising river levels and recent engineering measures have helped stabilize operations. The government has begun constructing a riverbed sill to regulate flow and has sunk two barges near the plant to temporarily raise water levels, allowing the two turbines to stay running while the sill is built.

Why it matters

Restoring full output at Paks will supply nearly half of Hungary's electricity, reducing risk of power shortages.

In this story

nuclear plantPaksHungaryelectricityDanube water levelsreactor restartturbinesriverbed sillbarges
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