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.
