"State of Emergency" as Europe's Night Views Vanish: Desperate Measures [World Report]

This is a street in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

The lights of the city hall, which used to illuminate the night with beautiful lighting, have been completely turned off, and the brightness of street lamps has been reduced to one-third, leaving the streets in dim darkness.

This happened as the Danube River flowing through Romania dropped to record-low water levels due to severe drought, leaving Romania's sole nuclear power plant unable to secure cooling water and forcing it to cut output, while other hydroelectric plants also failed to generate electricity properly.

Struggling with a severe power crisis caused by the drought, the Romanian government declared a state of emergency for the entire month of August and is frantically trying to save electricity.

This week, even the navy was mobilized to detonate 180 kg of explosives underwater to clear a water path toward the power plant in order to prevent a shutdown of the nuclear facility.

[Ilie Bolojan / Prime Minister of Romania : (Due to the decrease in power generation,) we have declared a nationwide state of emergency for the entire month of August.]

Neighboring Hungary has also taken restrictive measures, ordering public buildings and non-essential area lighting to be turned off as the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which accounts for half of the nation's electricity production, faces the threat of a complete shutdown.

As a result, the beautiful night views that symbolize the capital, Budapest, have also disappeared.

[Silke Schneiders / German Tourist : Frankly, I was very disappointed. I took a river cruise at night, but the bridges and all the buildings were completely pitch black.]

Slovenia's only nuclear plant, the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant, has also cut its output by 20%, and Bulgaria's sole nuclear plant, the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, has also entered a state of emergency alert.

France has already shut down two nuclear power plants.

Facing poor crop yields and industrial activity constraints as well as a power crisis due to severe drought, Europe is desperately hoping that the rain forecasted for some regions this weekend will provide significant relief from the drought.

(Video by Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.