A swarm of jellyfish has caused major disruption at one of France's largest nuclear power plants, for the second time in a month.
The jellyfish entered the filters of the pumping station at the Paluel nuclear plant, as reported by France's national energy firm EDF. This incident has reduced the plant's output in Normandy by 2.4 gigawatts, prompting crews to work diligently to restore it to full operation.
Previously, in August, another significant disruption occurred at the Gravelines nuclear power plant, which was forced to cease operations due to a massive and unpredictable jellyfish swarm.
The disruption at Paluel represents nearly half of its 5.2 gigawatt output, as one of its four reactors was shut down and a second was reduced to protective measures. Nuclear power accounts for about 70% of France's energy consumption, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA).
Paluel houses four reactors, each generating over 1,300 megawatts of power. EDF confirmed that the measures were taken at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) after the "arrival of jellyfish" in the plant’s non-nuclear filters.
The company stated that teams were actively performing diagnostics and interventions to bring both reactors back to full functionality.
