The largest nuclear power plant in Western Europe stopped due to jellyfish

The largest nuclear power plant in Western Europe. Meanwhile, located in the north of France, is stopped due to a massive presence of jellyfish in the water pumping stations used to cool its reactors.

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Four production units automatically stopped between the night of Sunday. Moreover, Monday morning, a rare incident, because of this “massive and non -predictable presence” of jellyfish in the filter drums of the pumping stations, announced the EDF electricity company.

This “had no consequence on the safety of the facilities. For example, the safety of the staff or on the environment,” assures the operator on his site, recalling that the largest nuclear power plant western pumping stations are in the non -nuclear part of the power station.

The Gravelines power station is therefore temporarily stopped, because its two other production units are currently under maintenance.

According to EDF, three production units automatically stopped on Sunday between 11 p.m. Furthermore, and midnight (between 9 p.m. Therefore, and 10 p.m. GMT), “in accordance with safety and protection devices”, and another unit “automatically stopped” on Monday at 6:20 am (4:20 GMT).

“The central teams are mobilized. currently carrying out the diagnostics and interventions necessary to be able to restart the production units in complete safety,” says EDF.

Located by the North Sea against England. Gravelines is the largest nuclear power plant in Western Europe by its number of reactors and its production capacity (6 pressurized water reactors of 900 megawatts each).

The power station must also accommodate two new generation reactors (EPR2) of 1,600 MW each by 2040.

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Restart in the coming days

“The central teams are mobilized. currently carrying out the diagnostics and interventions necessary to be able to restart the production units in complete safety,” says EDF.

Their restart is planned, one after the other, in the coming days, said EDF later.

“There is no risk of shortage” for the French electricity network because of this incident. a group spokesperson told AFP, because other nuclear power plants and other energy sources are currently running, such as solar.

Nuclear reactors paralyzed because of an invasion of jellyfish. it is “quite rare”, but EDF has already known it “in the 1990s”, still according to the spokesperson for the group questioned by AFP.

Similar cases have already occurred, especially in the 2010s, in the United States, Scotland, Sweden and Japan.

The proliferation of these gelatinous. stinging marine animals is due to several factors, including warming oceans with that largest nuclear power plant western of the climate, but also overfishing, which eliminates some of their direct predators such as tuna.

The presence of jellyfish on the coast of northern France “is regular. seasonal”, explains to AFP Dominique Mallevoy, aquariology manager at the National Center of the Nausicaá Sea in Boulogne-sur-Mer, not far from Gravelines.

The jellyfish in the region have a very short life cycle: they are born in the spring. “will almost all die between fall and winter,” he adds.

“Almost every summer now, there are reports from large benches of jellyfish.” With the scarcity of fish. they have fewer predators and more plankton available for their diet, so “they will grow without problem”, notes this expert.

The rise in sea temperatures can also play a role in their increased proliferation in summer. because water that warms faster in the spring facilitates the birth of baby-droves, according to Mallevoy.