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Nuclear energy hasn't always been the most popular clean energy alternative for some, yet few might have expected a swarm of angry jellyfish to be the latest detractors having forced one of Europe's largest plants to shut down.
The horrifying events that occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 has continued to leave a stain on the potential for nuclear power as a fossil fuel alternative, leaving many to question whether it is the ideal option for the future.
While US President Donald Trump has fast-tracked a surprising NASA plan to put nuclear reactors on the Moon, leaving many in complete shock, other areas of the world remain resistant to potentially dangerous developments.
One of Europe's biggest nuclear power stations continues to hold strong though, with Gravelines Nuclear Power Station producing roughly 6% (31.65 TWh) of France's total electricity in previous years, yet it all came to a half thanks to a bizarre event involving jellyfish.
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While the stinging threat of jellyfish to humans is well documented, this is the first time that the squishy ocean fiends have managed to disrupt something as significant as a nuclear power station, yet some fear it might not be the last.
As reported by the New York Times, a "massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish" initially forced three of Gravelines' six nuclear reactors offline on Sunday night, with the fourth also giving up shortly after on Monday morning.
The cause of the bizarre event appears to be that masses of jellyfish grouped up in the pumping stations' filter drums, causing the power plant's safety and protective systems to automatically shut down as a cautionary measure.
EDF, the operator of Gravelines Nuclear Power Station, has thankfully asserted that the jellyfish "had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment."
The reason why the jellyfish were there in the first place is due to the plant's close proximity to a commercial farm that uses the water flowing from the cooling towers to raise fish, as it is warmer than the North Sea's typical temperatures.
These warmer temperatures are a better environment for the fish to be raised within, but they also tend to attract larger jellyfish populations, leading to this strange attack that very few could have predicted.
"The issue of jellyfish and power generation disruption remains a global challenge, as blooms of jellyfish are becoming more frequent and widespread due to factors such as overfishing, climate change, and increased coastal development," the Oceanic Invertebrate Research Institute explains.
This isn't the first time that an attack of this kind has occurred either, as jellyfish attacked similar plants in Israel, Japan, and Scotland in 2011, with Sweden being next on the list in 2013.
While it remains a problem that nuclear reactors will continue to deal with in the near and distant future, it's thankfully not some targeted threat by Big Jellyfish that joins the already strong contingent of people who oppose nuclear power, but merely an environmental inconvenience that – albeit harmless in the grand scheme of things – has the power to shutter an entire plant.
