{"id":116299,"date":"2026-08-15T00:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/116299\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T00:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:23:08","slug":"a-jellyfish-swarm-shut-down-reactors-at-one-of-europes-biggest-nuclear-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/116299\/","title":{"rendered":"A Jellyfish Swarm Shut Down Reactors at One of Europe\u2019s Biggest Nuclear Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost exactly a year after I wrote about how one of the biggest nuclear power plants in Europe was shut down by a swarm of jellyfish<\/a> that clogged its cooling system, it happened again.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters<\/a>, three reactors at France\u2019s Gravelines nuclear power plant were taken offline Monday after a massive jellyfish swarm clogged the systems that draw in seawater to cool the reactors. A fourth reactor was reduced to half power, just in case.<\/p>\n

This is becoming an annual tradition for the jellyfish, as in August 2025 they did the same thing, shutting down four of six reactors at the very same nuclear power plant. Back then, officials spent hundreds of thousands of euros installing cameras to improve monitoring and arranging for fishing boats to patrol the area. <\/p>\n

While it sounds like they failed, actually, all did their jobs. The swarm was just too powerful. The fishing boats were deployed this year after early warnings, and the crews got to work using vacuum trucks to suck up the jellyfish and already reached the plant.<\/p>\n

Three Reactors Went Offline After Jellyfish Clogged a French Nuclear Plant\u2019s Cooling System<\/p>\n

French utility provider EDF says the massive jellyfish swarm poses no danger to anyone and that the affected reactors will return to service soon. Don\u2019t worry, your Godzilla nightmares will not come true, as the jellyfish are not being exposed to radiation of any kind, though the reason they were swarming a nuclear reactor is something of a weapon of mass destruction: climate change.<\/p>\n

Warm oceans encourage jellyfish to reproduce and extend their breeding seasons. Other factors, like overfishing, habitat loss, and population declines in their natural predators, also help these blooms grow.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened, but even last year\u2019s jellyfish clog wasn\u2019t the first time. It\u2019s been happening at nuclear reactors all over the world for at least a decade and a half, maybe more. Like the rest of us during the peak of summer, when it gets too hot, we retreat to cooler temps. And since we don\u2019t seem to be doing too much about climate change, we can probably expect this to happen more often. <\/p>\n

So I\u2019ll see you back here in a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost exactly a year after I wrote about how one of the biggest nuclear power plants in Europe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17212,58373,4,58374,5822,49,9640,6719],"class_list":["post-116299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-animals","tag-believe-it-or-not","tag-europe","tag-jellyfish","tag-life","tag-news","tag-trending","tag-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}