{"id":29257,"date":"2026-08-06T02:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29257"},"modified":"2026-08-06T02:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:08:30","slug":"hungary-faces-energy-crisis-as-danube-river-dries-to-record-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29257","title":{"rendered":"Hungary faces energy crisis as Danube River dries to record lows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/3241785961088\/2026\/i\/17859615254610\/v1.5\/Hungary-faces-energy-crisis-as-Danube-River-dries-to-record-lows.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 5 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> Hungary is facing an energy crisis as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Danube_River\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Danube River\" class=\"tpstyle\">Danube River<\/a>, which cools the nation&#8217;s largest power plant, dries to record lows.<\/p>\n<p>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.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Danube is an integral component in the running of Paks, Hungary&#8217;s only nuclear power plant, as it flows into the reactor and cools it down.<\/p>\n<p>Three of the plant&#8217;s four reactors were not in operation on Wednesday, while the fourth is operating at 50% power, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/hungary-paks-nuclear-plant-danube-shutdown\/\" target=\"_blank\">CBS News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>The plant is responsible for generating half the electricity needed by the country&#8217;s 10 million people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Several factors will determine whether Hungary&#8217;s most important power plant can avoid a complete shutdown in the coming days,&#8221; said Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, CBS News reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are a few critical days left &#8212; today and tomorrow are certainly that,&#8221; Magyar added, according to the outlet. &#8220;I ask everyone to continue the national unity that has developed in the country. Let&#8217;s do what our country demands.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In Serbia, researchers have found some 200 boats that had been hidden deep in the Danube, including World War II-era Nazi warships, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/the-danube-river-has-fallen-to-record-low-water-levels-revealing-nazi-warships-bombs-and-woolly-mammoth-bones-in-its-channel-180989255\/\" target=\"_blank\">Smithsonian<\/a> magazine reported.<\/p>\n<p>A ship that likely sank in 1937 was exposed in Croatia.<\/p>\n<p>And in Bulgaria, residents discovered the remains of a woolly mammoth.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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) &#8212; Hungary is facing an energy crisis as the Danube River, which cools the nation&#8217;s largest power plant, dries to record lows. Water&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/i\/3241785961088\/2026\/1\/17859615254610\/v1.5\/Hungary-faces-energy-crisis-as-Danube-River-dries-to-record-lows.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}