Europe’s increasingly hot summers come with a worrying trend. The air conditioning that the continent long eschewed as an American indulgence is becoming a necessity, and some of the nuclear reactors needed to run those cooling units are tapping out right as thermometers spike. This summer was especially bad: The series of extreme heat waves that roasted Europe, killing thousands and fueling historic wildfires, also severely impacted the rivers that provide water to cool thermal power plants such as nuclear stations.

In France and Switzerland, nuclear plants went offline as river temperatures rose, to prevent the discharge of warm water into sensitive aquatic ecosystems. In Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, nuclear plants built along the Danube River either shut down or reduced output as drought dropped the water levels below intake pumps.

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