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Global warming causes jellyfish surge, causes nuclear plant shutdowns

Increasing fishing activity and global warming are giving jellyfish populations a boost, scientists said, potentially making jellyfish invasions at nuclear power plants located near the open sea more common in the future

Jellyfish keep UK nuclear plant shut, Reporting by Karolin Schaps; editing by Jason Neely),  Scientific American ,| June 29, 2011 An invasion of jellyfish into a cooling water pool at a Scottish nuclear power plant kept its nuclear reactors offline on Wednesday, a phenomenon which may grow more common in future, scientists said.

Two reactors at EDF Energy’s Torness nuclear power plant on the Scottish east coast remained shut a day after they were manually stopped due to masses of jellyfish obstructing cooling water filters.

“We are working to clear the jellyfish from the waters near the power station. This work, as well as monitoring the area for more jellyfish, is ongoing,” a spokesman for Britain’s largest nuclear power operator, EDF Energy, said…….

If you get a bit of calm and warm weather they can turn up inshore in high numbers,” said David Conway, a marine biologist at the Marine Biological Association.

Water temperatures off the east coast of Scotland are currently 13 degrees Celsius, one degree above average levels for this time of the year, Britain’s Met Office said.

July 6, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, UK