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Page added on March 9, 2016

Bird poop on the lines causes nuclear power shutdown

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant outside New York City is in the news yet again. This time it’s to explain the cause of a three-day shutdown in December, 2015. It seems that they are blaming the shutdown on bird poop.

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. said the Indian Point facility shutdown safely for three days, starting December 14, 2015, following an electrical disturbance on outdoor high-voltage transmission lines, according to the Associated Press.The site operator pointed the finger at bird “streamers,” explained rather colorfully in the statement as “long streams of excrement from large birds that are often expelled as a bird takes off from a perch.” WTVR Richmond says this apparently caused the shutdown, tripping a safety breaker that took the reactor offline for three days.”If a streamer contacts an energized conductor, the electrical current may travel through the streamer back to the bird or pole/transmission tower. The result may be a bird electrocution, power outage, and/or line trip,” Entergy explained in a report released last month, according to RT.The utility company has started installing bird guards on transmission towers and is now conducting more frequent inspection and cleaning of the lines. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Eliot Brenner explained that it is not uncommon for animals to trigger power outages, adding that squirrels are the biggest source of power disruptions. “They’re kind of few and far between, but they’re not uncommon,” he said.

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19 Comments on "Bird poop on the lines causes nuclear power shutdown"

Plantagenet on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 6:47 am

I’m not impressed with nuclear engineers.

They have to learn everything the hard way

Cheers!

Anonymous on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 6:55 am

Well, it looks like bird poop has managed to accomplish what all those chinese hackers and Al-qaeda, sorry ‘ISIS’, have failed to do. Bring down americas world class power grid.

I wonder if the FBI has detained any of the birds for questioning to find out if they were working for ‘ISIS’. Or if the birds only ‘inspired’ by ‘ISIS’, but were pooping alone. Still, you have to wonder how the revelation that things like bird poop, squirrels, and moderately high winds, rain, sunlight etc, are all bigger threats than chinese hackers and ‘ISIS’ to the us grid will be received after all the paranoid media coverage about how legions of chinese hackers were just itching for the chance to take over americas leaky nuclear power stations. Too slow-poop got there way ahead of em.

Practicalmaina on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 8:13 am

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-09/germany-said-to-move-toward-electric-car-tax-break-to-spur-sales

Makes sense for a country with as much pv as they have, I would love to charge my car while at work with company solar panels.

paulo1 on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 9:08 am

re: “It seems that they are blaming the shutdown on bird poop.”

Wow, no one blamed Obama or Hitlery. That’s a first in 2016!!

Kenz300 on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 9:50 am

Nuclear energy is poisoning the planet…………

5 Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout

http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/05/5-years-after-fukushima/

Sissyfuss on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 12:29 pm

Alfred Hitchcock tried to warn us, but Nooo!! You kept feeding the little feathered terrorists.

dubya on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 12:45 pm

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crippled-fukushima-reactors-are-still-a-danger-5-years-after-the-accident1/

GregT on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 12:48 pm

A simple solution, to a simple problem.

Eradicate all birds.

Who needs them anyways? They contribute nothing to the economy.

Pennsyguy on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 1:47 pm

We should force prisoners to put diapers on birds. That would be my campaign promise.

bug on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 3:28 pm

Time to go fill my birdfeeders.

“Go forward my little pretty’s”

penury on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 5:20 pm

At least it was not horse shit, otherwise the power would be off until at least the election.

makati1 on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 6:27 pm

penury, thanks for that laugh. This ‘election’ has been the most entertaining one in decades. And the horse shit is flying hard and fast. “Clowns to the left of me …

Goat1001 on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 6:31 pm

The FBI (Federal Bird Investigators) caught the feathered terrorists red handed (OK, red beaked) and the CIRCUIT judge sentanced them to capital punishment by electrocution…

Goat1001 on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 6:32 pm

Nature bats last!

dooma on Wed, 9th Mar 2016 7:09 pm