Romania shuts nuclear plant as Danube drops

Romania shut down its only nuclear plant on Thursday, in a rare move due to drought that has caused the Danube river, whose waters cool the plant, to fall to record lows.Romania shuts nuclear plant as Danube dropsMuch of Europe is facing a new summer heatwave amid a drought that has driven rivers to historic lows.The Cernavoda plant, which usually generates a fifth of Romania's electricity, has been shut down just once before, in 2003, also due to drought.The Nuclearelectrica company had already shut one of the plant's two 700 megawatt reactors last month, and announced Thursday that it needed to shut the second "due to the significant and ongoing drop in the water level of the River Danube"."We do not foresee a restart within the next 10 days," plant director, Romeo Urjan, told AFP.- Effo