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Four reactors at French gravel nuclear power plants were forced to close on Sunday after a surge in jellyfish clogged its cooling systems, energy operator EDF confirmed Monday.
The shutdown, which was closed amid rising water temperatures associated with global warming, temporarily halted all generation at the site as the remaining two units were offline for scheduled maintenance.
Located on the north coast between Dunkirk and Curry, gravel is one of France’s largest nuclear facilities, with six units capable of producing a total of 900 megawatts of electricity.
The plant is cooled through canals connected to the North Sea. The North Sea is an area that has seen the growth of jellyfish populations in recent years due to warming and the spread of invasive species.
The Asian Moon Jellyfish, the first invasive species detected in the North Sea in 2020, has a history of thriving in mild plankton-rich waters such as ports and canals, causing chaos at nuclear power plants in China, Japan and India.
The EDF has not confirmed whether this type is the cause of the latest incidents.
According to the EDF, reactors 2, 3 and 4 automatically shut down just before midnight after a “large and unpredictable” jellyfish numbers filled the filter drums of the pump station. Reactor 6 was taken offline after a few hours.
The operator said the filter pump was not damaged but had to be cleaned before operation resumed.
The EDF emphasized that the incident took no risk to the safety of the factory, staff or the environment, and that the team was working to reboot the reactor as quickly as possible.
The jellyfish involved are not considered dangerous to humans.
