Salps, Tiny Jellyfish-like Creatures, Knock Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Offline
Posted on April 27, 2012
The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports that millions of sea salps have forced the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County, California to power down. The salps are typically located far away from the coast, but persistent southerly winds have blown millions of the small, gelatinous two to three inch creatures toward the coastline.
The Diablo Canyon power plant's intake provides seawater for cooling. It is 240-feet long, 100-feet wide and 18-feet high. The salps, which like to join together and form rope-like structures, are clogging and overwhelming the plants intake screens.
Here is what the nuclear power plant has to say about the salp invasion:
As reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, southerly winds began blowing the salps into the plant's cooling water intake cove on Tuesday. Plant operators noticed differences in water pressure at the intake structure, which meant the salps were beginning to clog the rolling screens in front of the intake.After initially reducing power in Unit 2 to 15 percent, the problem with the animals first got better and then got worse. So, on Wednesday, the decision was made to fully power down the plant.
Here is a National Geographic video of sea salps, that shown them banding together to form luminous chains up to fifteen feet long. Take a look: