{"id":461734,"date":"2026-08-04T13:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/04\/danubio-a-secco-e-rischi-per-il-nucleare-ue-pronta-a-convocare-gli-esperti-dellenergia\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:25:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:25:47","slug":"danube-running-dry-posing-nuclear-risks-eu-ready-to-convene-energy-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/04\/danube-running-dry-posing-nuclear-risks-eu-ready-to-convene-energy-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Danube running dry posing nuclear risks; EU ready to convene energy experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Heat and drought are causing the Danube to dry up at such a rate and to such an extent that Hungary risks having to shut down its nuclear reactors due to a lack of water for cooling. These developments, linked to the heatwave gripping Europe<\/a>, are also causing concern for the European Commission. \u201cSo far, there has been no need to convene the <\/strong>Electricity Coordination Group, but we are ready to convene it<\/strong>” should the situation require it, says Anna-Kaisa Itkonen<\/strong>, spokesperson for the European Commission on energy matters.<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

The Electricity Coordination Group<\/a> is the expert body that facilitates strategic discussions on electricity policy, security of supply, and market implementation.<\/span><\/span> It meets on an ad hoc basis to address emerging cross-border challenges, grid stability, and crisis management responses across all Member States of the European Union. The Commission is already taking action, but in any case, Brussels wishes to set the record straight: \u201cIt is not accurate to say that nuclear energy is unreliable and unsafe,<\/strong>\u201d the Commission spokesperson stressed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What is happening with the low water levels of the Danube, Itkonen points out, is \u201cextreme weather that is affecting the capacity\u201d to generate energy, specifically nuclear energy. Nevertheless, vigilance remains at its highest and \u201cwe are monitoring the situation in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria,\u201d said the Commission spokesperson. \u201cAt present, we do not foresee any supply issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the reactors were shut down and energy supplies cut off, Itkonen points out that the EU has mechanisms in place to deal with such a scenario and thus meet the needs of Hungary and the affected citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the river running dry, Hungary is no longer able to cool its power stations and fears it may have to shut them down. The Commission: \u201cWe are ready to activate the Electricity Coordination Group\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":461725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30800],"tags":[25871,25833,34022,26050,35187,26950,29736,25992,33394],"class_list":["post-461734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-anna-kaisa-itkonen","tag-climate-en","tag-danubio","tag-drought-en","tag-broth-en","tag-nucleare-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461735,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461734\/revisions\/461735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}