{"id":64027,"date":"2026-08-12T01:23:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/64027\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:23:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:23:56","slug":"jellyfish-swarms-knock-out-3-2-gigawatts-of-french-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/64027\/","title":{"rendered":"Jellyfish swarms knock out 3.2 gigawatts of French nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A \u201cmassive influx\u201d of jellyfish has forced Electricite de France SA to shut three units at its Gravelines nuclear power plant and reduce output at a fourth,\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.edf.fr\/actualites-des-unites-de-production\" href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.fr\/actualites-des-unites-de-production\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">curbing power supply<\/a>\u00a0at a time when extremely hot weather is boosting demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to http:\/\/edf.fr\/actualites-des-unites-de-production\" href=\"http:\/\/edf.fr\/actualites-des-unites-de-production\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">taken some<\/a>\u00a03.2 gigawatts of capacity offline, with parts of the country\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-10\/europe-s-fifth-heat-wave-risks-straining-rivers-power-and-crops\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-10\/europe-s-fifth-heat-wave-risks-straining-rivers-power-and-crops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">forecast<\/a>\u00a0to see temperatures near 40C in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A series of heat waves have scorched Europe this summer. Unusually high temperatures off the coast of France can cause jellyfish populations to \u201cbloom.\u201d Pumping stations for coastal nuclear plants like Gravelines usually draw in seawater for cooling, sometimes\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-08-11\/jellyfish-shut-four-french-nuclear-reactors-as-heat-wave-builds\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-08-11\/jellyfish-shut-four-french-nuclear-reactors-as-heat-wave-builds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">exposing<\/a>\u00a0them to marine life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read More:\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-10\/europe-s-fifth-heat-wave-risks-straining-rivers-power-and-crops\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-10\/europe-s-fifth-heat-wave-risks-straining-rivers-power-and-crops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Europe\u2019s Fifth Heat Wave Risks Straining Rivers, Power and Crops<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The disruptions started on Monday, and two of the reactors are scheduled to come back online by Wednesday night. The other two, which total 1.8 gigawatts, could stay offline until the end of the week, according to\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Go to https:\/\/doaat.edf.fr\/en\/indisponibilites\/list\" href=\"https:\/\/doaat.edf.fr\/en\/indisponibilites\/list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">regulatory filings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EDF is already facing large curbs at other nuclear sites located on rivers as the high temperatures mean the water cannot effectively cool the reactors without causing environmental damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Gravelines site is on France\u2019s northern coast. Last year, it faced similar problems when swarms of jellyfish clogged up filter drums.<\/p>\n<p>Fortune Daily breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune\u2019s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/topic\/fortune-daily\/?&amp;itm_source=fortune&amp;itm_medium=article_tout&amp;itm_campaign=fortune_daily\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cmassive influx\u201d of jellyfish has forced Electricite de France SA to shut three units at its Gravelines&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[825,5,1314,429,1329],"class_list":["post-64027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-environment","tag-france","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-energy","tag-nuclear-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}