Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant have Problems Due to Jelly Fish

In Japan, it was a monstrous earthquake and tsunami that brought down the Fukushima nuclear plant. In California, it’s a tiny, jellyfish-like sea creature called salp that’s causing problems at the Diablo Canyon atomic plant.
An invasion of salp has prompted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to temporarily shut down a nuclear reactor at Diablo Canyon, in Avila Beach, San Luisa Obispo County, on the central California coast.
A giant swarm of the transluscent barrel-shaped organisms this week clogged intake screens that are used to keep marine life out of the seawater that is used as a coolant for the nuclear plant.

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On Wednesday, PG&E officials reduced power output at the Unit 2 reactor, then decided to shut it down altogether “until conditions improve at the intake structure.” The plant’s other reactor, Unit 1, had already been shut down earlier in the week for a planned refueling and maintenance outage.

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“Safety being the number one priority, there was such an influx of salp and you need ocean water to cool the reactors,” PG&E spokesman Tom Cuddy told msnbc.com on Friday. “At that point we made a conservative decision to safely shut down the unit.”
PG&E owns and operates the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, whose two reactors together produce approximately 2,300 net megawatts of electricity – enough to serve nearly 3 million northern and central California homes.
Cuddy said he wasn’t sure when the Unit 1 reactor would come back online.
“We’ll turn the unit on to full power when it’s safe to do so – when the salps leave,” he said. “The bottom line is we’re taking a methodical and conservative approach.”
Lara Uselding, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees reactor safety and security, said the plant is not in any danger.
“It’s not a normal operation condition, but the plant is safe and all the systems operated as designed,” she said.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/27/11432974-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant-in-california-knocked-offline-by-jellyfish-like-creature-called-salp?lite

U.K. Posts Wettest April in 102 Years Following 22-Month Drought

The U.K., suffering from limits on water use because of a drought lasting 22 months, had its wettest April since at least 1910, the Met Office said.

With more rain forecast tonight, the U.K. has had 121.8 millimeters (4.8 inches) this month, beating the prior record of 120.3 millimeters in 2000 and compared with an average for April of 69.6 millimeters, the state forecaster said in a statement.

“Further rain is to come overnight tonight as outbreaks of heavy and possibly thundery rain affect southern England and Wales,” the Met Office said today in the statement.

Rain has led to 188 flood warnings and alerts across Wales and England, including for the Thames river west of London and around the city of Oxford, the Environment Agency said.

The wet month follows the fifth driest March on record, the Met Office said. April has also been cooler on average than March for the first time since 1998, it said. Figures to April 25 show the mean temperature this month has been 6.1 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit), after March’s 7.7 degrees.

Kemble Water Holdings Ltd.’s Thames Water unit, the U.K.’s largest water company serving 8.8 million homes and businesses in London, joined six other utilities by imposing restrictions on consumption, from April 5. Hose-pipe bans limit the use of garden hoses to water yards, wash cars, fill pools, ponds and fountains, and clean windows, walls and patios.

Liscombe in Somerset has had the most rainfall this month with 273.8 millimeters, more than three times the average.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-30/u-dot-k-dot-posts-wettest-april-in-102-year-record-met-office-says

Meteor Shower over North California Creates loud Boom

People were still talking Monday about a meteor shower over Northern California that created a loud "boom" heard and felt across much of the region.
A meteor streaked across the sky Sunday when it apparently broke up above the Earth, sending the sound reverberating across the area, said Stefanie Henry, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento.
The National Weather Service received reports of the sound across Northern California, and even as far south as Orange County, she said.
Though the peak of the shower was Saturday evening, beams of light will probably be visible for several days.
However, light pollution around large cities such as Los Angeles may make it difficult to catch a glimpse, Henry said. meteor-shower-sounds-loud-boom-over-northern-california.html