Jellyfish Swarm Forces French Nuclear Plant To Shut (bbc.com)
(Monday August 11, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the reactor-meets-cephalopod dept.)
- Reference: 0178646274
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/11/2113213/jellyfish-swarm-forces-french-nuclear-plant-to-shut
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx299eyg7qko
[1]AmiMoJo shares a report from the BBC:
> A French nuclear plant temporarily shut down on Monday [2]due to a "massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish" in its filters , its operator said. The swarm clogged up the cooling system and caused four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant to automatically switch off, energy group EDF said. The plant is cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea -- where several species of jellyfish are native and can be seen around the coast when the waters are warm. According to nuclear engineer Ronan Tanguy, the marine animals managed to slip through systems designed to keep them out because of their "gelatinous" bodies.
>
> "They were able to evade the first set of filters then get caught in the secondary drum system," he told the BBC. Mr Tanguy, who works at the WNA, said this will have created a blockage which reduced the amount of water being drawn in, prompting the units to shut down automatically as a precaution. He stressed that the incident was a "non-nuclear event" and more a "nuisance" for the on-site team to clean up. For local people, there would be no impact on their safety or how much energy they could access: "They wouldn't perceive it as any different to any other shut-down of the system for maintenance."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~AmiMoJo
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx299eyg7qko
> A French nuclear plant temporarily shut down on Monday [2]due to a "massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish" in its filters , its operator said. The swarm clogged up the cooling system and caused four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant to automatically switch off, energy group EDF said. The plant is cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea -- where several species of jellyfish are native and can be seen around the coast when the waters are warm. According to nuclear engineer Ronan Tanguy, the marine animals managed to slip through systems designed to keep them out because of their "gelatinous" bodies.
>
> "They were able to evade the first set of filters then get caught in the secondary drum system," he told the BBC. Mr Tanguy, who works at the WNA, said this will have created a blockage which reduced the amount of water being drawn in, prompting the units to shut down automatically as a precaution. He stressed that the incident was a "non-nuclear event" and more a "nuisance" for the on-site team to clean up. For local people, there would be no impact on their safety or how much energy they could access: "They wouldn't perceive it as any different to any other shut-down of the system for maintenance."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~AmiMoJo
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx299eyg7qko
SNNP stays on and pumps out 3 eyed fish! (Score:2)
by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 )
SNNP stays on and pumps out 3 eyed fish!
Free jellyfish! (Score:2)
by Gravis Zero ( 934156 )
This isn't the first time jellyfish have clogged up a pipe of warm water coming from a nuclear plant, so my question is why not install something so that they can be harvested. Jellyfish are in no way endangered (their numbers are skyrocketing thanks to climate change) so why not simply treat them like a potential resource?
Re: (Score:2)
by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 )
The 7 year old in me thought "just put a giant blender in front of it" but for real, is there a good use for tons of mined jellyshish?
So (Score:3)
by sjames ( 1099 )
Jellyfish leave nuke plant in a jam?
Beats dolphins with lasers. (Score:2)
So who are we blaming today?
Re: (Score:1)
Well, this time it's global warming. As the oceans get warmer the jellyfish are going to increasingly become a problem. High acidity and toxic algae blooms will follow.