Jellyfish are the new anti-nuclear protesters, using their soft little bodies to shut down a power plant in France. It’s not the first time it’s happened, either.
A nuclear power plant produces a huge amount of heat in the process of producing electricity. To maintain safe working levels, constant water flow is needed to cool the equipment. This is often taken from local water sources and filtered before being used in cooling tanks.
Typically, the water used is free of too much livestock and debris. But, due to rising water temperatures, jellyfish have become a threat to the nuclear power plant in Gravelines, Ford, France.
A whole swarm of them was sucked into the filter drums of the pumping stations. The large amount of jellyfish caused a shutdown of three of the four nuclear reactors in the power plant. The fourth then shut down only a day later.
Two of the reactors remain offline. None of them were damaged, but the filter drums will need to be fully cleaned out before they can be deemed safe for working again. Those pesky jellyfish really got up in that nuclear power plant.
Jellyfish Are A Rising Problem For Nuclear Power Plants
Jellyfish aren’t exactly the smartest or most nimble of sea creatures. So, when the inlet of a nuclear reactor cooling system creates a current, Jellyfish are going to get sucked in. This wouldn’t typically be a problem. The reactors were built in areas that weren’t previously populated by many jellyfish.
But, due to rising water temperatures, they are breeding in much larger numbers. There are now huge schools of jellyfish where there weren’t any before. And, as a result, power plants around the world are shutting down due to the mass of jellyfish getting stuck in the nuclear reactor cooling systems.
“Everyone talks about nuclear being clean, but we don’t think about the unintended consequences of heat pollution,” David Wright, marine biology consultant, explained. “Jellyfish can also hitch rides on tanker ships, entering the ships’ ballast tank in one port and often getting pumped out into waters halfway across the globe.”
Sweden, Japan, and Scotland have all experienced nuclear power plant shutdowns due to Jellyfish.