Gravelines reactivated its reactors after the interruption caused by the massive presence of jellyfish in their cooling systems.
The nuclear power plant Gravoraslocated in northern France, his activity resumed on Wednesday After the massive presence of jellyfish caused the automatic stop of four of its six reactors at the beginning of the week. The other two reactors were out of service for maintenance tasks, while EDF coordinated the safe reactivation of the plant.
The central, located near the border with Belgiumis the one that has the greatest production capacity in Western Europewith six reactors of 900 MW each. “The reactor No.6 returned to work this morning at 07:30”, AFP indicated an EDF spokeswoman, who added that the units 2, 3 and 4 will be reactivated “in the next few days.”
Gravelains_nuclear_power_station
The stop was due to the fact that The jellyfish were stranded in the filter drums of the seawater pumping stations that cool the reactors, a rare fact that forced to interrupt operation as a preventive measure. According to EDF, these stops “They had no consequences on the security of facilities, staff or the environment.”
Causes and background of the incident
The proliferation of jellyfish is linked to ocean warming and overfishingwhich reduces the number of natural predators such as tuna. This is not a new phenomenon: the central already faced similar situations in the years 1990and similar episodes were recorded in The United States, Scotland, Sweden and Japan during the 2010.
Gravelines is the nuclear plant with Greater capacity in Western Europe and is part of the 65% of nuclear energy which supplies France in 2024, according to the operator of the RTE electricity. EDF works to ensure that the units work again with total security.
Looking to the future, Gravelines plans to incorporate two new EPR2 reactors, 1600 MW each, from the year 2040, further increasing your ability to Electric generation
Source: Ambito
