A phenomenon that marine biologists say could become more common sees jellyfish clog pipes at a nuclear plant.

Moon jellyfish
Image Caption: Moon jellyfish shut down a nuclear reactor (File picture)

A huge cluster of jellyfish has forced one of the world's largest nuclear reactors to shut down.

Operators of the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in Sweden had to scramble reactor number three on Sunday after tons of jellyfish clogged the pipes that bring in cool water to the plant's turbines.


All three Oskharshamn reactors are boiling-water types, the same technology used at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, which suffered a catastrophic failure in 2011 after a tsunami breached the facility's walls and flooded its equipment.

Jellyfish are not a new problem for nuclear power plants. Last year the California-based Diablo Canyon facility had to shut its number two reactor after sea salp - a gelatinous, jellyfish-like organism - clogged intake pipes.


Nuclear power plant
Image Caption: Staff at the Oskarshamn plant




The species that caused this shutdown is known as the common moon jellyfish.


"The moon jelly likes these types of waters. They don't care if there are algae blooms, they don't care if the oxygen concentration is low. The fish leave ... and the moon jelly can really take over the ecosystem."
