A swarm of jellyfish halted production at the largest nuclear power plant in France.
According to Sky News, four reactors of the Gravelines Nuclear Power Station of France stopped working after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums of the pumping stations over the weekend.
Électricité de France SA (Electricity of France) confirmed the disruption caused by the jellyfish attack to Sky News, saying that a "massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish" automatically shut down units 2, 3 and 4 between 11pm and midnight on 10 August.
Later, after 6am on Monday, 11 August, unit 6 of the plant located on the coast between Calais and Dunkirk also stopped working.
The power station, which produces a total of 5.4 gigawatts of power to provide electricity to around 5 million homes, halted production briefly.
Meanwhile, the two units that were not affected by the jellyfish were already offline for maintenance.
EDF stated that the pumping stations impacted by the jellyfish were in the non-nuclear part of the plant and the shutdown did not affect “the safety of the facility, the safety of personnel or the environment."
A spokesperson of the plant said that despite disruption caused by sea jellies, France is still exporting over four gigawatts of electricity to the UK.
Notably, there has been a surge in the jellyfish in the sea near Calais, potentially due to rising water temperatures and their food, plankton.
