Spineless attacks on nuclear power plants could increase

[bananas]

http://thebulletin.org/spineless-attacks-nuclear-power-plants-could-increase8001

Spineless attacks on nuclear power plants could increase
Natalie Kopytko 02/19/2015

Nuclear power plants increasingly face a new enemy: the humble jellyfish.

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The problem is not entirely a new one in the energy industry; the first known jellyfish “attack” on a (coal-fired) power plant happened in 1937, in Australia. But while biological fouling has long been an issue, the number of such events has been on the increase in the past five years or so, and could increase further because of environmental change. The sheer number and size of the animals seems to be increasing as well; in some incidents, there have been more jellyfish than water, jellyfish biologist and senior marine scientist Monty Graham of southern Alabama’s Dauphin Island Sea Lab has reported. Sometimes, the jellyfish concentrations can be quite dramatic, with as many as 50 to 100 of the animals per cubic meter of water. News photos show jellyfish taken from power plant intakes filling containers the size of the bed of a pickup truck. Occasionally, schools of jellyfish are so large and thick that they can be seen from the air, as shown in this video footage from LiveScience.

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Such supposedly freak events may become even more common in the future, because of degraded environmental conditions that favor jellyfish. The Asian press has reported near-annual swarms of the massive species known as Nomura’s jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai)—a six-foot diameter, 440-pound species that used to arrive on Japan’s coasts only about once every 40 years. Japan’s Shinichi Ue, a professor of marine science at Hiroshima University, warned in November 2014 that the world will be “in big trouble” if its leaders “fail to get serious about countermeasures against jellyfish.”

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Algae, too. And jellyfish are not the only problem. Many forms of aquatic life can cause problems with the cooling water intake system at nuclear power plants. Recently, Cladophora—a taxonomic grouping that includes many similar species of green algae—have been of particular concern, causing problems at nuclear reactors along the Great Lakes multiple times.

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Jellyfish economics. Biological fouling in nuclear power plants has long required monitoring, evaluation, and action. But International Atomic Energy Agency reports warn that monitoring and processes that address biological fouling will need to change, because nuisance species seem to benefit from the warmer waters caused by climate change.

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[Demeter]

1. Too bad jelly fish have no commercial use

There's money in them there blobs! All we need is an innovator with a bright idea...


Chinese eat them: http://www.trade-seafood.com/species/jelly-fish-commercial-species.htm

and there are a lot of Chinese...

They have a lot of mucin, probably more than the world will ever need: Researchers Find a Use for Jellyfish. The Many, Many Jellyfish...NYT

Scientist discovers how to turn jellyfish into industrial raw material

http://www.haaretz.com/life/nature-environment/.premium-1.601592

...Jellyfish have disrupted the marine ecosystem and are seen as something of terrorists in the food chain. For example, a recent report describes how a bloom of jellyfish, spanning 4 square miles, devoured 100,000 salmon in a fish farm in Northern Ireland, causing damages of $1.5 million.

“Jellyfish cause damages in three major areas,” said Richter. “They clog up and paralyze atomic or electric power stations and desalination plants. In fact, they spell disaster for any facility that uses sea water. This happens in many places, including Korea, Japan, Sweden and India.

Jellyfish have also had a dramatic impact on the world fishing industry. “This is evident especially in the Far East, where there are species of huge jellyfish, weighing up to 150-200 kilograms [330-440 pounds]. They snag and block fishing nets and cause huge economic damages,” Richter said.

“Israeli fishermen I spoke to told me that on days when jellyfish swarms are close to the shore they don’t go out to sea,” he said.

The third industry to come under jellyfish attack is tourism. If in Israel, the jellyfish cause painful burning at worst, the deadly species off Australia’s shores have required closing down beaches for extended periods...

[tularetom]

2. Jellyfish, the cockroaches of the sea

Not only could they survive nuclear winter, sounds like they could damn well cause it.