One of the largest nuclear power plants in Europe partially shut down this weekend, overwhelmed by a gooey and spineless foe: jellyfish.
The “massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish” forced three of the six reactors at the Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in Northern France to go offline just before midnight Sunday, according to EDF, the company that operates the plant. A fourth reactor shut down early Monday, the company said.
The jellyfish convened in the filter drums of pumping stations in the non-nuclear part of the facility, EDF said in the statement, adding that “they had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment.”
The shuttering of the reactors was part of the power plant’s safety and protection systems, EDF said. The company said that workers were trying to restart the reactors safely. EDF did not immediately return a request for comment.
Jellyfish are 95 percent water, but in large swarms they can cause big problems for nuclear power plants by clogging their cooling intake systems.
“The issue of jellyfish and power generation disruption remains a global challenge, as blooms of jellyfish are becoming more frequent and widespread due to factors such as overfishing, climate change and increased coastal development,” according to the Oceanic Invertebrate Research Institute.
Nuclear plants around the globe have been affected by jellyfish swarms. In 2011 alone, jellyfish caused shutdowns at plants in Israel, Japan, and Scotland. In 2013, an invasion of jellyfish paralyzed a reactor in Sweden.
The nuclear plant in Gravelines has six reactors (two of which were already shut off because of maintenance, according to EDF). Commercial fish farms use the plant’s cooling water as well, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, “which is warmer than the seawater in that stretch of the North Sea, is said to promote faster fish growth.”
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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