Swarm of jellyfish forces shutdown at French nuclear power plant

Scientists accidental warmer waters successful the North Sea owed to clime alteration person created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

Four reactor units astatine 1 of France’s largest atomic powerfulness stations person been forced to unopen down owed to a swarm of jellyfish successful the plant’s h2o pumping stations, French vigor radical Electricite de France (EDF) said.

Three reactor units were automatically unopen down connected Sunday evening astatine Gravelines connected the English Channel, followed by the 4th aboriginal connected Monday morning, EDF said, adding that the information of the plant, its employees and the situation was not astatine risk.

“These shutdowns are the effect of the monolithic and unpredictable beingness of jellyfish successful the filter drums of the pumping stations,” EDF said successful a statement.

The works successful bluish France is 1 of the largest successful the state and is cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.

Teams were carrying retired inspections to restart the tract “in implicit safety”, EDF said, adding the reactors that were unopen down are expected to restart connected Thursday.

The beaches astir Gravelines, betwixt the large cities of Dunkirk and Calais, person seen an summation successful jellyfish successful caller years owed to warming waters and the instauration of invasive species.

Jellyfish prevarication connected the enactment adjacent the Gravelines atomic powerfulness works successful Gravelines, bluish France, August 12, 2025 [Sameer al-Doumy/AFP]

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote successful 2021 that jellyfish swarms incapacitating atomic powerfulness plants is “neither caller nor unknown” and determination was important economical outgo owed to the forced closure of powerfulness plants.

Scientists are presently exploring ways to avert closures owed to oversea swarms, including utilizing drones to representation the question of jellyfish, which would let aboriginal intervention.

“Jellyfish breed faster erstwhile h2o is warmer, and due to the fact that areas similar the North Sea are becoming warmer, the reproductive model is getting wider and wider,” Derek Wright, marine biology advisor with the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Reuters quality agency.

“Jellyfish tin besides hitch rides connected tanker ships, entering the ships’ ballast vessel successful 1 larboard and often getting pumped retired into waters halfway crossed the globe,” helium said.

An invasive taxon known arsenic the Asian Moon jellyfish, autochthonal to the Pacific Northwest, was archetypal sighted successful the North Sea successful 2020. The species, which prefers inactive h2o with precocious levels of carnal plankton, specified arsenic that successful ports and canals, has caused akin problems earlier successful ports and astatine atomic plants successful China, Japan, and India.

EDF said it did not cognize the taxon of jellyfish progressive successful the shutdown, but this is not the archetypal clip jellyfish person unopen down a atomic facility, though specified incidents were “quite rare” – the past effect connected EDF operations was successful the 1990s.

There person been cases of plants successful different countries shutting down owed to jellyfish invasions, notably a three-day closure successful Sweden successful 2013 and a 1999 incidental successful Japan that caused a large driblet successful powerfulness output.

Experts accidental overfishing, integrative contamination and clime alteration person created conditions for jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

EDF said determination was nary hazard of a powerfulness shortage owed to the shutdown, saying different vigor sources, including star power, were operational.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies