Jellyfish force partial shutdown of French nuclear plant

What the report says

A jellyfish influx has caused a partial shutdown at the Gravelines nuclear power station in northern France, according to BBC World News. The plant’s operator, Électricité de France (EDF), said two units were taken offline on Wednesday and Thursday after jellyfish entered the seawater filtration system used for cooling. A third unit had already been shut down since 10 August for the same reason, while another unit was closed for inspection.

Gravelines, which lies between Dunkirk and Calais in the Hauts-de-France region, is one of France’s largest nuclear sites and has six units in total. BBC World News reported that the station is cooled by a canal linked to the North Sea. EDF also said one unit had only recently been reconnected to the grid after an earlier jellyfish-related disruption, and that other units were operating at reduced power as a precaution.

The BBC noted that this is the second year in a row that jellyfish have forced a shutdown at Gravelines, after a similar incident last August. More broadly, the report said jellyfish-related disruptions at nuclear facilities are uncommon, though they have occurred elsewhere in Europe in past years. The episode highlights how warm-weather marine conditions can affect industrial cooling systems and temporarily disrupt power generation.