00:01Europe has faced increasingly severe heat waves in the past few weeks,
00:06causing wildfires in several countries such as Spain, France and Greece.
00:11But further impact has been emerging as key waterways such as the Rhine and the Danube
00:16have fallen to exceptionally low levels in some places breaking records.
00:22This could make cargo transport significantly more difficult,
00:26potentially forcing vessels to carry smaller loads,
00:28causing commercial shipping on parts of these routes to grind almost to heart
00:33or requiring operators to adopt more cumbersome alternatives.
00:38Major European industries, including oil refining and chemicals,
00:42could therefore face severe disruption.
00:45Operators must instead divide cargo between several vessels
00:49or shift some freight to road or rail.
00:52For the chemical and petrochemical industries,
00:55reduce navigable depths, restrict deliveries of essential materials such as nafta or liquefied petroleum gas
01:02from North Sea ports to inland factories.
01:07Raising water temperatures have also made industrial cooling systems less efficient,
01:12further increasing operational pressures.
01:14This is especially important for nuclear and thermal power plants.
01:19In Hungary, the low water levels have forced the PAC's nuclear power plant to reduce output
01:26and shut down one of its four reactors.
01:29Romania had to do the same.
01:30key risk of automatic use of new nuclear power plants.
01:30To be continued…
01:34…………………………………………………………
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