Jellyfish Force Nuke Plant to Shut Down

Creatures clog screens to cooling system

A huge swarm of jellyfish forced officials in Scotland to shut down a nuclear plant when the creatures clogged the facility's cooling system.

The jellyfish were sucked in from the North Sea and clogged up filters designed to screen seaweed from the colling system. Reactiors were turned off on Tuesday, and workers are still trying to clear the fish out of the filters. It was not known when the plant, near Dunbar, would be back online.

Officials said warmer than usual temperatures could have given rise to the surge in the jellyfish population. A similar event occurred earlier this month in Japan, though that plant did not have to shut down completely.

"There are suggestions from some science data that over the past few years there has been an increase in swarms of jellyfish. It's possible it's linked to climate change," Steve Hay, a plankton ecologist who specializes in jellyfish research at the Marine Scotland Science laboratory in Aberdeen told Reuters.

A spokesman for plant operator EDF told the London Daily Mail there was no danger posed by the jellyfish.

"At no time was there any danger to the public," he said. "There are no radiological aspects associated with this event and there has been no impact to the environment."

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