- Gravelines nuclear plant shut down after jellyfish clogged cooling pumps on Aug 11
- Only one of six reactors ran at full capacity; three offline, one at half output
- EDF assured safety of facility, personnel, and environment despite shutdown
Gravelines, Western Europe's largest nuclear power station, was forced to shut down on Tuesday (Aug 11) after a swarm of jellyfish clogged the pumps used to cool the units. The incident happened exactly a year after the same thing happened when the power station was overwhelmed by jellyfish, leaving operations at the facility disrupted for two days.
This time around, the plant's operator, EDF, stated that only one of the six reactors was running at full capacity. Three of the six 900-megawatt reactors were taken offline completely, a fourth had its output halved, and another was already offline for maintenance.
“This situation has no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of our personnel, or the environment,” EDF said in a statement on the latest event.
“On-site teams are fully mobilised to ensure the safety of the facilities and to reconnect the reactors to the national power grid.”
Fishing vessels had been deployed and were carrying out round-the-clock "preventive fishing operations". Three boats were patrolling the coast, catching jellyfish in trawlers and releasing them offshore. The pumping stations and the equipment are also being cleaned up to restart the operations.
As of the last update, the exact species of jellyfish involved in the incident was not known.
This is not the first instance in which reactors have been shut down in France this year. EDF was forced to shut down several reactors in June and July because of extreme heat and drought-like conditions. Prior to this week's closure, France recorded a shortfall of 15.6 per cent in nuclear power production, according to an AFP report.
Swarms of jellyfish have also forced nuclear plants to shut down elsewhere, including a three-day closure in Sweden in 2013 and a 1999 incident in Japan that caused a major drop in output.
Experts say overfishing, plastic pollution, and warming seas due to climate change have created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.
