What Caused the Shutdown of a Nuclear Power Plant?

The headline was just too good to pass up. “Bird Poop Caused Shut Down at Indian Point 3 Nuclear Plant.” It’s how Penn Energy reported the story about an automatic shut down that happened in December at the Indian Point 3 nuclear plant in New York.

The utility explained it was “bird poop” in the form of a “streamer” from large birds that caused an electrical arc between wires, resulting in a safety breaker to trip and the Unit 3 to shut down.

Entergy, the company that runs the plant explained that streamers are a long line of excrement from large birds as they take off from a perch. Not to be too graphic, it sounds clearly like no one wants to be underneath those large birds when they take off.

The company said if a streamer contacts an energized conductor, the electrical current could travel through the streamer and back to the bird or the pole. It could result in the electrocution of the bird, a power outage or a line trip.

Entergy said it is in the process of installing bird guards on the transmission towers to protect them from the “bird streamers.”