Four nuclear reactors in Japan, Israel and Scotland were forced to shutdown due to infiltration of enormous swarms of jellyfish, which clogged the plant's cooling system.
Earlier this week, the Orot Rabin nuclear power plant in Hadera, Israel was forced to shutdown when a swarm of jellyfish blocked the plant's water supply which is used as a coolant.
The string of jellyfish surges began a week before with a reactor in Shimane, Japan. And in a week's time two reactors at Torness power station, operated by EDF, in Scotland had to be shutdown as the seawater used as coolant was inundated with jellyfish.
And, the Twit of Inevitability:
@UKNukeJellyfish A cooling pool? Sounds like a great place to chill.
@UKNukeJellyfish Why do my tentacles feel all tingly?
@UKNukeJellyfish Is it getting brighter in here or is it just me? Wait. It is just me!
@UKNukeJellyfish Feeling. Strange. Powerful. I. Am. Jellyfish. Nuclear Jellyfish!
@UKNukeJellyfish The power flows through me. Nothing can stop me now. Your puny world will be mine!
@UKNukeJellyfish Time to destroy you puny humans! OK, what's around here to destroy? You will feel my sting Dunbar, Scotland!
@UKNukeJellyfish You will all soon bow to your gelatinous zooplankton ruler!
There are no nuclear power plants in Israel.
The power plant in Hadera isn't a nuclear plant, but a coal burning plants. It does use sea water for cooling, though.
There are two reactors in Israel, both for “scientific” use: one in Soreq, about 35 kilometers south of Tel-Aviv, and the (in)famous one in the Negev desert–the one John Crossman (aka Mordechai Vanunu) spilled the beans about to The Sunday Times.
Hm, blurb says "the Orot Rabin nuclear power plant in Hadera, Israel" but the captions within the link say "Israel Electric Corp.'s Orot Rabin coal-fired power station on the Mediterranean coast near the central town of Hadera".
Wikipedia says coal-fired.
(FWIW, the other two plants mentioned are nuclear, with a total of three reactors affected.)
Heh. Someone already commented on the originally-referenced article with the same correction. Oh well.
I, for one, w...
Oh nevermind. [goes to make out last will and testament and mix a giant cocktail]
So get some better screens, why don't they. I don't know... at least window screen type material on a good curved or angled frame, maybe with an agitator, or a boat that herds jellyfish. Whatever this "no covers on the inlets" technology they have is doing, it isn't working so well.
They are using screens; the jellyfish are simply overwhelming them. As for "better", you need to keep in mind that the intake / outflow rate of these plants are stupidly huge: window screen material (of the 1-2mm square grid variety here in the USA at least) would simply block too much water.
What's happening in these plants is that there is such a high density of jellyfish that the standard filters are being overwhelmed. The only physical upgrade solution is to make bigger intake structures, which essentially means redesigning and rebuilding a substantial part of the plant.
What we need is some way to encourage them to go elsewhere. For example, a robotic decoy tourist with a slightly weak heart going for a swim.
I'm not sure that bigger intake can't be entirely modular, based on a pipe fitting to the existing intake. I think the larger problem here is: Why?
After reading tkil's link, it's clear that more than a pipe fitting is involved. The intake structure has lots of moving parts, remotely operated garbage rakes, a travelling screen... it's pretty serious business.
Another anonymous twitter parody. How spineless. No backbone.
Sort of spongy.