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cbabe

(5,553 posts)
Mon Aug 11, 2025, 11:05 AM Aug 11

Swarm of jellyfish shuts nuclear power plant in France

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/swarm-of-jellyfish-shuts-nuclear-power-plant-in-france

Swarm of jellyfish shuts nuclear power plant in France

‘Massive and unpredictable’ swarm entered filter drums that pull in water, Gravelines operator EDF says
Business live – latest updates

Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent
Mon 11 Aug 2025 06.15 EDT

A swarm of jellyfish has forced the shutdown of one of the largest nuclear power plants in France after entering the water intake systems used to cool the coastal reactors.

Three reactors at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France shut down automatically late on Sunday, according to the French nuclear company EDF, after the filter drums of the pumping stations became packed with a “massive and unpredictable” swarm of the marine creatures.

… more …

(Spineless Nature. Not Rambo.)
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NNadir

(36,578 posts)
4. It's hardly a joke. It's a statement of fact.
Mon Aug 11, 2025, 11:59 AM
Aug 11

Question: If a coal plant, the overwhlming majority of which are, like nuclear plants, Rankine cycle plants, shut because jellyfish clogged the intake for cooling, would this be an important news item?

Is the statement in my post about German solar plants untrue?

What's the point? To say that nuclear energy is unreliable?

In any data based credible analytical survey, nuclear plants show the highest capacity utilization of any primary energy source on the planet, greater than solar and wind by a factor of two to three. Nuclear power also shows the lowest carbon cost in report after report after report, thousands of which are in my files. Finally nuclear energy shows the lowest costs in health damage of any primary energy system.

Attacks on nuclear energy always rely on selective attention. I note that the reason so called "renewable energy" was able to suck trillions of dollars out of the world economy for no environmental result other than destroying wilderness and making the world incresingly reliant on mining, and leaving vast streches of land in flames, was because it was fueled by antinuke selective attention. The consistent feature of antinukes is their indifference to the use of fossil fuels and contempt for the future of humanity.

I trust you're having a pleasant morning.

cbabe

(5,553 posts)
5. I think the point is little squishy jellyfish shutting down big powerful machine. Like
Mon Aug 11, 2025, 12:08 PM
Aug 11

termites taking down a house.

Amusing ironic metaphor. At least to me.

NNadir

(36,578 posts)
6. Well I obviously see it quite differently.
Mon Aug 11, 2025, 12:25 PM
Aug 11

To me environmental issues are very serious matters about which I'm highly sensitive, particularly because I regard nuclear energy as the only viable tool to address extreme global heating.

I still don't believe for a second that if the machine were a gas plants or a coal plant, both of which require cooling water, a post would have appeared here.

lastlib

(26,687 posts)
3. Jellyfish? Or....
Mon Aug 11, 2025, 11:28 AM
Aug 11

...a GOPee congressional caucus meeting??

Hard to tell--they're both spineless, brainless, float with the current, and feed from the bottom.......

I nicknamed Kevin McCarthy "Kevin the Jellyfish" for his spinelessness. (I won't insult jellyfish by giving Speaker Mikey a similar moniker.....)

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