By Anupum Pant
Nuclear power plants need have a massive intake of water to cool down their scorching hot interiors like fuel rods and turbines. So, they are preferably built near the coast where water can be sucked up from the sea in big quantities.
The intake valves located at the coast create a suction that can make tiny and simple, yet menacing creatures like jellyfish and sea salps can clog the pipeline very easily. Especially when there’s a group of them hanging around the intake.
This has caused several nuclear power plants around the globe to shutdown several times and is often detected when there’s a serious difference in pressure at the intake pipelines.
It happened to a nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo, California in the year 2012 [Link]
In Japan’s Reactor #3 of the Ooi nuclear powerplant, in 2012 [Link]
An Israeli nuclear power plant at the coast in 2011
Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in southern Sweden in the year 2013.
And probably many others around the world…