Jellyfish bung up output at Japan nuclear plant

TOKYO (Reuters) - A mass of jellyfish forced a Japanese nuclear power plant to slow part of its output this week after the slimy creatures blocked up the plant's seawater cooling system.
"It's the first time we have had to lower power output because of jellyfish," a Chubu Electric Power Co. spokesman said.
The water intake at Chubu Electric's Hamaoka power plant in Shizuoka prefecture, about 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tokyo, stopped automatically on Wednesday when the slippery customers got blocked in a filtering device.
Without enough seawater coming in to the cooling system, Chubu Electric had to lower the output of two of the reactors at the plant to 60-70 percent of capacity.
Output returned to normal by the evening after the company removed the jellyfish, the spokesman said.
"We sometimes do the same thing when debris from typhoons sticks to the filter," he said.
No radioactive material leaked out due to the incident, he added.
Japan's fishing communities have been plagued by schools of giant jellyfish in recent years, prompting local governments to seek new ways to dispose of the problem.