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Romania shuts only nuclear plant as heat causes drop in Danube River level(bbc.com)
30 points by tartoran 21 hours ago | 6 comments
ChrisArchitect 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Related:

Record heat is drying up Europe's major rivers, as these striking images show

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283344

preisschild 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Can CANDU6 reactors be refitted with cooling towers? Only Enhanced CANDU 6 seem to offer this.

petre 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Romania's two units are not CANDU 6.

"In March 2021 Nuclearelectrica stated it expected to commission unit 3 by 2031, starting construction in about 2024. The largely-new reactors will be updated versions of the CANDU 6, but not the full EC6 version, since the concrete structures are already built. Unit 3 was reported to be 52% completed and 30% for unit 4, though in 2017 the reported figures were 15% and 14%. They would have an operating lifetime of 30 years with the possibility of a 25-year extension."¹

CANDU 6 is open cycle. EC6 can work in a closed cycle with cooling towers. One just doesn't simply make alterations to nuclear power plant designs without the appropriate design, testing and certification. Unit 1 was also completed in 1996, so it's at near the end of its planned operating lifetime.

The Indian PHWR developed from the CANDU can also work in a closed loop.

For Romania there are other solutions, like redirecting flow through the Old Danube branch, which they already attempted through rock blasting and sinking a bunch of rock filled barges in order to buy two more weeks before shutting down the plant. This, of course, comes at a cost for shipping traffic.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Romania

preisschild 9 hours ago | parent [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernavod%C4%83_Nuclear_Power_P...

> Make and model CANDU 6

> Unit 1, a CANDU 6-type,

> Four years later, Unit 2, another CANDU 6-reactor, achieved criticality

petre an hour ago | parent [-]

Okay, so there are updated CANDU 6 designs which aren't EC6?

toomuchtodo 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

https://www.gem.wiki/Cernavod%C4%83_nuclear_power_plant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernavod%C4%83_Nuclear_Power_P...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Romania

https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/RO/live/fifteen_min...