Romania’s Cernavodă Unit 1, with capacity of around 700 MW, is scheduled to resynchronise on 6 November after being offline for more than three months because of low Danube water levels. Its return is a key near-term factor for Romania’s winter power supply, import requirement and the balance in neighbouring Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia.
Unit 2, also around 700 MW, remains dependent on a sustained hydrological recovery. The return of one or both reactors would materially change Romania’s import requirement and affect the power balance in those neighbouring markets, making reactor availability a factor in winter prices before new nuclear projects can influence supply.
Romania is also preparing a long-term refurbishment of Unit 1 to extend its operating life for another cycle. The European Investment Bank (EIB) approved an 800 million euros financing envelope for the programme, whose estimated total cost is 3.2 billion euros. Maintaining existing nuclear capacity can require investment measured in billions of euros, even before new-build projects are considered.
Bulgaria’s nuclear generation is anchored by the 2 GW Kozloduy plant. Unit 6 entered annual maintenance on 8 October and is scheduled to return at the end of November. Hungary’s four Paks reactors supply around half of domestic generation; Unit 4 completed its 2026 maintenance at the start of November, while construction of Paks II started in 2026.
Krško is a key firm power asset for Slovenia and Croatia. It supplied 487 GWh net in September, with 100% availability, and has an approved lifetime extension.
Greece has no nuclear power plant, but established a government committee in 2026 to examine whether to pursue a national nuclear programme. No decision to build has been taken. The committee’s work comes as Greece increasingly relies on gas to cover hours when non-renewable generation is unavailable.
Delayed restarts or additional outages during cold periods with low wind would increase import requirements and put renewed pressure on neighbouring markets.
