Exhibition research display object 9: The Danube and Pak's agricultural history; the boat-mill
24/12/14
Prior to the construction of the nuclear power plant there, Paks was primarily an agricultural community, intimately connected to the river Danube, using it for food gathering and floodplain farming practices. It emerged as a regional industrial center in the second half of the 19th century, largely due to its boat-mill technology. This innovation enabled the affordable grinding of crops on the Danube, attracting businesses from the surrounding areas. In the 19th century there were national efforts to regulate the Danube for flood protection and to make the Hungarian section of the Danube navigable for steamboats, which significantly altered the natural environment and the human connection to the river. Today, concrete embankments shield settlements along the river, offering protection and some control over this natural force, but also creating a physical and symbolic distance between people and the river as a living entity.

Zsófia Gaál, an environmental engineer and vice-president of the Environmental Section of the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers, said in a discussion organized by the platform Másfélfok (1.5 degrees) about the planned expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) that "we are exploiting our waters: a surface water cannot simultaneously serve as a source of drinking water, a bathing area, a fishing spot, a sewage intake, irrigation water, cooling water for power plants, and—as in the case of the Danube—an international shipping route." Gaál emphasizes the need to reconsider plans for the new Paks II Power Plant and its chosen cooling system by the Danube, in light of rising temperatures. Current heat waves already force the Paks NPP to reduce its capacity during the hottest summer days, a problem that climate change will inevitably exacerbate. The nuclear facility is restricted from raising the Danube's temperature above 30°C for a 400-meter downstream section, a limitation that has led to 8 to 9 days of capacity loss during recent summers—a hundredfold increase compared to the 1975–2019 average. Experts predict even greater capacity losses when Paks II becomes operational, as its cooling system, located upstream from the existing NPP, will let water heated over its temperature limit down the river.