Jellyfish and Scottish reactor

Posted: 31st December 2021

Jellyfish are continuing to clog the cooling intake pipes of a nuclear power plant in Scotland, which has previously prompted a temporary shutdowns of the plant. The Torness nuclear power plant has reported concerns regarding jellyfish as far back as 2011, when it was forced to shut down for nearly a week—at an estimated cost of $1.5 million a day—because of the free-swimming marine animals. In a short comment to Motherboard, EDF energy, which runs the Torness plant, said that “jellyfish blooms are an occasional issue for our power stations,” but also said that media reports claiming the plant had recently been taken offline because of jellyfish are “inaccurate.” “[There were] no emergency procedures this or last week related to jellyfish or otherwise,” a spokesperson said. Like many other seaside power plants, the Torness plant uses seawater to prevent overheating. While there are measures in place to prevent aquatic life from entering the intake pipes, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, they are no match for the sheer number of jellyfish that come during so-called “jellyfish blooms.” In 2008, a swarm of jellyfish shut down a nuclear power plant in California, and three years later the same occurred at a plant in Japan. In 2017, jellyfish clogged a power plant in Israel. In response to the jellyfish clogging the plant in Scotland, a commercial drone company called RUAS reportedly asked the Scottish Civil Aviation Authority to allow it to fly surveillance drones over the area, according to the Scottish Herald.