Powerplant down due to fish at cooling inlet

[johnmyster]

Once you get close, sure, but the inlet surely is not a huge vacuum cleaner. Something must be attracting this specific type of fish to the proximity other than the suction.

Soot buildup due to improper operation of the emergency diesels. Perhaps they should put deer whistles on the intakes. DC Cook had signs that said "hey fish, stay over that way."

Fish by nature look for food, shelter, etc.

 

[KrisZ]

Soot buildup. Perhaps they should put deer whistles on the intakes.

Don’t you mean fish whistles?

 

[OVERKILL]

Once you get close, sure, but the inlet surely is not a huge vacuum cleaner. Something must be attracting this specific type of fish to the proximity other than the suction.

I think the flow of the thermal plume from the outlet might be attracting them to the area and then they are further attracted by the fast moving water being drawn into the inlet. Just a theory though.

The weird bit for me is that the inlet is on the bottom of the lake, where the water is always quite cold (~3C) so it strikes me as odd that they'd head down that deep, but maybe following that moving water takes priority?

 

[loneryder]

Gizzard Shad take out Bruce A unit 2.

Soooo, interesting development last week. Huge, this cannot be overstated, HUGE amounts of gizzard shad fish invaded the intake channel at Bruce A, overwhelming the screens and limiting intake water flow. They derated Unit 1 but eventually had to kill Unit 2 due to inadequate water being able to enter the plant. Unit 1 has been holding on, but at reduced power. (Both units 3 and 4 are offline for refurbishment, 3 is going to be headed back to service soon, 4 just went offline a few weeks ago).

Now, this is a OTC setup (Once Through Cooling) but it's not super primitive like Pickering where the water just comes in the front of the plant. Both Bruce A and B have deep water inlets, so how the fish are ending up, in the volume they are ending up, in the intake channel is somewhat puzzling. My thought is that the thermal plume from the outlet is flowing that direction and they are moving toward the moving water (the inlet would definitely be considerable amounts of moving water).

This doesn't appear to be affecting Bruce B, so I'm not sure if it's just the location of the A plant (corner of a bay) that's the issue or what, but it's causing some serious issues at the plant.

https://www.brucepower.com/2025/02/14/unit-2-removed-from-service/

You can see the intake channel in the back of the plant and where the tunnel goes out in the lake. I BELIEVE the dark spot straight out from the tunnel is likely where the inlet is located. The outlet flows pretty much due north and just dumps into the lake as you can see:
View attachment 264235

One stick of dynamite will keep the power flowing.