Hungary began sinking two 80-metre cargo barges in the Danube on Saturday to raise water levels near the Paks nuclear power plant, a short-term intervention after the government announced an underwater rock barrier to secure cooling.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar said 130 workers and 100 trucks are deployed at the site, about 100 kilometres south of Budapest, with military helicopters placing the heaviest two-tonne concrete blocks into the riverbed. The barges, anchored and partially submerged by 20 centimetres, are expected to lift water levels by roughly that amount, while the long-term sill will use nearly 150,000 cubic metres of rock to raise levels by up to a metre over coming weeks.
The plant normally supplies about half of Hungary's electricity but has been running at reduced capacity since a historic drought left only one or two turbines operational. Romania shut its last operating reactor on Thursday for the same reason.