Jellyfish Attacks Japanese Nuclear Power Plant!

A nuclear power plant in Japan was forced to lower the output of its reactors after jellyfish blocked a filter in a seawater cooling system.

(BBC)

Power from two reactors at Chubu Electric Power Co's plant in Hamaoka had to be reduced after the water intake system shut down automatically.

Workers removed the jellyfish mass and output later returned to normal.

"It's the first time we have had to lower power output because of jellyfish," a company spokesman said.

Output for the two reactors was reduced to between 60 and 70% of capacity for about three hours, the company said.

"We sometimes do the same thing when debris from typhoons sticks to the filter," the spokesman told Reuters news agency.

The Hamaoka plant is in Shizuoka prefecture on Japan's Pacific coast.

Recently, giant jellyfish have been a problem for fishing and coastal communities on Japan's west coast.

The government has been looking at measures to deal with the creatures, worried about their potential impact on local economies.