Romanian authorities resumed operations for the sinking of four rock-filled barges to increase the flow of the Danube toward the Cernavod\u0103 Power Plant on Thursday, August 6.<\/p>\n
Scheduled for a day earlier, the sinking was postponed because of strong currents. After they were filled, the four barges were aligned in a convoy and transported to the entrance of the Bala branch.<\/p>\n
Experts say the sinking of the barges is necessary to create an obstacle under the surface of the Danube so that more water flows toward the Old Danube branch and, ultimately, reaches the Cernavod\u0103 Nuclear Power Plant to cool the reactors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were problems related to the currents; the barges needed to be prepared, the aeration chambers of the barges had to be emptied, because it had been very hot and some of them had not had the same arrival timing. And then they all had to be prepared, somehow aligned in the same way,\u201d Ana Maria Agiu, spokesperson for Romanian Waters, told News.ro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Agiu specified that the sinking will be carried out through controlled flooding. The first barge started sinking at 3 PM and will be completely underwater in several hours.<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday the specialists informed that the operations could take around six hours. The basic idea would be for them to be completed before nightfall. That is, for the operation to be finalized by the evening,\u201d Agiu emphasized.<\/p>\n The spokesperson confirmed that authorities expect water levels near the nuclear plant to increase after the sinking of the barges. \u201cEven a few centimeters is very important. Every additional centimeter gained is beneficial for the operation of the power plant,\u201d Agiu also said.<\/p>\n The sinking of the barges follows dredging works and controlled explosions that slowed the drop in the Danube\u2019s water level. However, questions remain regarding the long-term sustainability of the operation of the Cernavod\u0103 nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one can guarantee the operation of the nuclear power plant for an indefinite period, but all the efforts being made are aimed at extending the term as much as possible,\u201d said DSU Romanian Waters representative Sorin R\u00e2nda\u0219u, according to Libertatea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n radu@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/p>\n (Photo:\u00a0Apele Rom\u00e2ne\u00a0Facebook Page)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Romanian authorities resumed operations for the sinking of four rock-filled barges to increase the flow of the Danube toward the Cernavod\u0103 Power Plant on Thursday, August 6. Scheduled for a day earlier, the sinking was postponed because of strong currents. After they were filled, the four barges were aligned in a convoy and transported to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}