Europe is facing mounting economic strain from successive heatwaves and drought, with Triodos Bank estimating the damage at €180 billion ($208 billion) this year, or 1% of GDP, roughly equal to the European Union’s expected growth. Romania’s state-owned nuclear producer Nuclearelectrica began disconnecting its sole operational reactor from the grid on Thursday because record-low Danube water levels threatened cooling, while Reuters reported Romania declared a state of energy emergency throughout August and urged voluntary power savings. France and Hungary have also curbed nuclear output, and low water on the Rhine is threatening German industry and could cut 0.3 percentage points from Germany’s GDP growth this year, ING economists said. The heat has also shut tourist sites early in Paris, pushed English farmers into 3 a.m. harvesting and raised risks to crops, food prices and wildfires. At the same time, benchmark natural gas futures are near their highest since the Iran war began, EU gas storage was 59% full on Tuesday, and analysts say an effectively shut Strait of Hormuz is tightening liquefied natural gas (LNG, gas shipped as a chilled liquid) supplies ahead of winter.