France restarts nuclear plant after jellyfish invasion

Lille, France: France s EDF power company restarted one reactor at the Gravelines nuclear power in northern France on Wednesday after a jellyfish inva...

Lille, France: France's EDF power company restarted one reactor at the Gravelines nuclear power in northern France on Wednesday after a jellyfish invasion caused a shutdown, officials said.

Located on the Channel coast near Dunkirk, Gravelines is the largest nuclear power plant in western Europe, with six 900 megawatt reactors.

The reactors were shut down on Sunday and Monday after a swarm of jellyfish clogged pumps used to cool them. The rare incident took place as a heatwave baked much of Europe.

"Reactor No. 6 restarted at 7:30 am this morning," an EDF spokeswoman told AFP. Work was still going on to restore three other reactors "in the coming days", the spokeswoman added.

The plant's two other units are offline for maintenance.