Navigation · water · environment · energy

Who owns the water?

Cernavodă, Bala and who can change the water route

At Cernavodă, cooling water follows a physical route. The institutions that can change it appear in records about navigation, the environment, water management and energy.

AFDJ presents BALA II as a navigation and environmental-protection project. Its official page lists cooling four reactors as an indirect benefit. primary documentS02

the waterlinethe pressure point
The water follows one line. The decisions sit in different records.
marker in the environmental agreement15-20%of the Silistra flow reaches the Old Danube at low water
primary documentS01

01 · the water route

Follow one waterline

From the flow measured at Silistra to the cooling circuits at Cernavodă, we follow what happens at each stop. Then we ask who has an instrument and what effect it produces.

Bala redistributes the waterThe records follow sills, branches, canals, pumps, permits and operating decisions. No single actor controls the whole route.
waterlinedocument detail
  1. Silistrathe Danube flow measurement primary documentS01
  2. Bala bifurcationthe bifurcation that redistributes water
    The record at this stopprimary documentS02

    What changes physically

    A bed sill and a restored branch can change how water is redistributed between the Bala branch and the Old Danube.

    What role appears in the record

    BALA II lists the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure as owner and AFDJ Galați as beneficiary.

    What effect is visible

    The same intervention is described through effects on navigation, sturgeon migration, wetlands and cooling flow.

  3. Old Danube15-20% at low water in the environmental agreement
    The record at this stopprimary documentS01

    What changes physically

    The environmental agreement says that, at low water, the branch downstream of Bala receives only 15-20% of the flow measured at Silistra.

    What role appears in the record

    The water regime depends on hydraulic works, permits and waterway administration, rather than on the plant operator alone.

    What effect is visible

    The water enters the route that feeds the Danube-Black Sea Canal and then the Cernavodă cooling systems.

  4. Intake routethe route towards the plant basin
    The record at this stopprimary documentS01

    What changes physically

    Water is taken from the Danube, passes through the first reach of the Danube-Black Sea Canal and the diversion channel to the plant.

    What role appears in the record

    The environmental agreement lists the intake, intake canal and distribution basin among the shared U1-U4 assets.

    What effect is visible

    The designed flow for Units 3 and 4 is 108 m³/s on a maximum day and 79.44 m³/s on an average day.

  5. Cernavodăopen cooling circuits
    The record at this stopreported sourceS05

    What changes physically

    At the plant, Danube water cools open circuits and returns to the Danube through the infrastructure described in the agreement.

    What role appears in the record

    Nuclearelectrica operates the plant and makes operating decisions. During drought, the operator can shut units down in a controlled way.

    What effect is visible

    A controlled shutdown protects the installation, but reduces available output and moves water dependence into energy policy.

02 · the project

Why does energy appear inside a navigation project?

AFDJ presents BALA II as a navigation and environmental-protection project. The proposed works include a restored and renaturalised branch, raising the bed sill from 0 to 6.5 m MNC and dredging on the Old Danube.

AFDJ lists water transport, sturgeon migration, wetlands and ecological flow among the main benefits. It then mentions the minimum flow for cooling four reactors and gives an assurance of more than 97%.

recorded owner
Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure
primary documentS03
beneficiary
AFDJ Galați
primary documentS02
key works
restored branch, bed sill, dredging
primary documentS02

04 · the pressure point

When the Danube fell, operating decisions followed

In summer 2026, the falling Danube brought the water shortage out of project documents and into operating decisions.

  1. documentedprimary documentS06

    Unit 2 stayed temporarily connected

    Nuclearelectrica said operation continued under monitored parameters and drought procedures.

  2. operator reportreported sourceS05

    Unit 2 entered a controlled shutdown

    The operator linked the decision to the continued fall in the Danube level and said the safe shutdown did not affect nuclear-safety parameters.

  3. official actofficial record indicatedS07

    The government created an interministerial committee

    The prime minister's decision indicated in the Official Gazette asks for solutions for water supply needed to cool current and future reactors.

05 · the role ledger

No single institution controls the route

Each instrument sits with a different institution. One can change a project, another can set conditions, and the operator can reduce or stop output.

  1. Sill, restored branch, dredging

    primary documentS02

    actor / institutionTransport / AFDJ

    instrumentdesign, construction, works administration

    effectnavigation, ecology, flow distribution

  2. Permits and water management

    primary documentS01

    actor / institutionRomanian Waters / environment authorities

    instrumentpermits, conditions, monitoring

    effectwater regime and ecological constraints

  3. Plant operation

    reported sourceS05

    actor / institutionNuclearelectrica / CNE Cernavodă

    instrumentmonitoring, reduction, controlled shutdown

    effectoutput and safe operation

  4. Coordinating a solution

    official record indicatedS07

    actor / institutionGovernment

    instrumentinterministerial committee and policy decision

    effectalignment of portfolios and timing

06 · the open ledger

What the records show. What we still do not know.

The question of responsibility ends in concrete records. They show a schedule, a procedure, a hydrological assumption and a coordination effort still in progress.

  1. Approved plan60 months

    AFDJ describes 12 months of design and 48 months of construction for BALA II.

    primary documentS02
  2. Procedure locatedcancelled

    The CN1076254 design-and-construction notice is listed as cancelled in the public index consulted.

    public procurementS04
  3. Flow assumption>97%

    The document calls it the normed assurance for cooling four reactors. The page does not publish the hydrological recalculation behind it.

    primary documentS02

What remains is to find out what schedule, funding and water regime can support shipping, sturgeon and cooling at the same time.

07 · the document register

Where every claim comes from

Here are the documents that fix the water route, institutional roles and public project status. We use reporting only for the 13 August event and keep the operator's statement attached.

  1. S01primary document

    Environmental agreement for Cernavodă Units 3 and 4

    Legislative Portal · 25 September 2013

    The Old Danube source, the 15-20% low-water share and the designed flows for Units 3 and 4.

  2. S02primary document

    Official BALA II page

    AFDJ Galați · checked 17 August 2026

    Owner, beneficiary, duration, works, ecological benefits and the indirect benefit for four reactors.

  3. S03primary document

    Government Decision 1,079/2024 and BALA II technical-economic indicators

    Government of Romania · 4 September 2024

    The Ministry of Transport as owner, AFDJ as beneficiary, the RON 1,020,762 thousand value and 48 months of works.

  4. S04public procurement

    CN1076254 notice for design and construction

    SEAP, public SICAP index · published 13 December 2024

    Estimated value of RON 743,795,414.73 and a procedure listed as cancelled.

  5. S05reported source

    Controlled shutdown of Unit 2

    Associated Press, quoting Nuclearelectrica · 13 August 2026

    The operator linked the shutdown to the falling Danube level and said the safe shutdown did not affect nuclear-safety parameters.

  6. S06primary document

    Unit 2 remains temporarily connected to the national grid

    Bucharest Stock Exchange, Nuclearelectrica · report dated 30 July 2026

    Operation under monitored parameters and drought procedures.

  7. S07official record indicated

    Prime Minister's Decision 278/2026

    Official Gazette of Romania · 14 August 2026

    The interministerial committee for solutions on water supply for cooling the Cernavodă reactors.

Limits of this edition

  • The official BALA II page says that flow for cooling four reactors is assured at more than 97%. It does not publish the hydrological series or recalculation behind that figure.
  • The CN1076254 notice appears as cancelled in the public index consulted. That status alone does not show what happened to a later procedure.
  • The page treats the reactor shutdown as an availability and safe-operation decision. It does not use it as evidence that nuclear safety was compromised.

We separate the facts in the records from the connection we draw between them and from questions the public record does not answer.

Updated 17 August 2026. The next edition should be triggered by an awarded BALA II contract, a works handover, a published hydrological recalculation or a new official water-supply decision.

See the wider Danube drought context