像水母的生物關閉加利福尼亞電廠
Jellyfish-Like Organisms Shut Down California Power Plant
Apr 26, 2012 3:56pm
Translation by Autumnson Blog
Image credit: Getty Images
The workers of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant received a very slimy surprise this week when they discovered hoards of jellyfish-like creatures clinging to the structure, leading to the shutdown of the plant.
在暗黑峽谷核電站的工人本週收到一項非常分泌黏液的驚奇，他們發現一堆堆像水母的生物纏著結構，導致電廠關閉。
The organisms, called salp, are small sea creatures with a consistency similar to jellyfish.
生物體被稱為被囊動物，是小型海洋生物有類似水母的濃度。
The influx of salp was discovered as part of the plant’s routine monitoring system, according to Tom Cuddy, the senior manager of external and nuclear communications for the plant’s operator, Pacific Gas & Electric.
被囊動物的湧入在工廠日常的監控系統的一部分被發現，根據太平洋煤氣和電力廠營運商的外部和核通信高級經理湯姆·卡蒂。
“We then made the conservative decision to ramp down the affected unit to 20 percent and continued to monitor the situation,” Cuddy said. “When the problem continued, we made another conservative decision that it would be safest to curtail the power of the unit.”
“然後我們作出保守的決定，去將受影響的單位斜下至20％，並繼續監察有關情況，”卡蒂說。 “當問題繼續，我們作出另一個保守的決定，削減單位的力量將是最安全的。”
The salp were clogging the traveling screens in the intake structure, which are meant to keep marine life out and to keep the unit cool.
被囊動物塞滿在攝入結構的傳導屏幕，那將海洋生物保持在外並保持機組涼快。
“Safety is the highest priority,” Cuddy said. “We will not restart the unit until the salp moves on and conditions improve. No priority is more important than the safe operation of our facility.”
“安全是最高的優先，”卡蒂說。“我們不會重新啟動機組直到被囊動物移走和條件改善，沒有優先是比我們的設施安全運行更重要。“
The plant consists of two units. Unit 1 was shut down previously because of refueling and maintenance work and will not be functional for several weeks. Now that Unit 2 has been shut down because of the influx of salp, the plant has ceased all production.
Even with the Diablo Canyon plant out of commission, PG&E has pledged to continue production using other sources of power so that customers are unaffected by the closure.
“We’ve had salp cling to the intake structure before, but nothing to this extent,” Cuddy said.
The plant’s strategy? Simply wait until the salp move on and resume production once the filters are clear.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/04/jellyfish-like-organisms-shut-down-california-power-plant/
