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Gravelines, located along the northern French coast between Dunkirk and Calais, has six reactors.
The jellyfish species near Gravelines are not dangerous to humans (Pexels/Representative Image)
France was forced to temporarily shut down its Gravelines nuclear power plant, the largest in Western Europe, after an unusual and unwanted incident involving jellyfish, reported Reuters. The energy group EDF, which operates the facility, confirmed that a massive swarm of jellyfish clogged the cooling water intake system, leading to an automatic shutdown of several reactors.
The shutdown occurred late on Sunday night, when filter drums at the plant’s pumping stations became filled with a “massive and unpredictable” influx of jellyfish. As a result, Reactors 2, 3, and 4 were automatically shut down just before midnight. Reactor 6 was taken offline several hours later on Monday morning. EDF clarified that the incident had no safety impact.
“The shutdown of units had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment,” the company stated on its website. It further explained that the remaining reactor was also shut down for maintenance purposes following the jellyfish blockage.
Gravelines, located along the northern French coast between Dunkirk and Calais, has six reactors, each capable of generating 900 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply power to millions of homes. EDF is planning to expand the facility with two new next-generation EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) units by 2040, each with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts.
The nuclear plant uses seawater from a canal connected to the North Sea to cool its reactors. In recent years, warming ocean temperatures and the spread of invasive species have contributed to more frequent jellyfish blooms along coastlines.
“Jellyfish breed faster when water is warmer, and because areas like the North Sea are becoming warmer, the reproductive window is getting wider and wider,” said Derek Wright, a marine biology consultant at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, as reported by Reuters.
While the jellyfish species near Gravelines are not dangerous to humans, they continue to disrupt coastal infrastructure. “Everyone talks about nuclear being clean, but we don’t think about the unintended consequences of heat pollution,” Wright noted.
Similar jellyfish-related shutdowns have occurred in nuclear and coal plants across Sweden, the United States, and Japan. In one notable incident in 1999, a jellyfish swarm caused a major blackout in the Philippines, initially mistaken for a Y2K-related malfunction or political sabotage.
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