Gravelines: French energy company EDF announced Tuesday that it had to shut down three reactors at the Gravelines nuclear power plant due to a massive influx of jellyfish into its filtration systems. EDF said the influx of jellyfish into the seawater pumping stations of the plant in northern France forced it to shut down three of its reactors on Monday, according to broadcaster BFMTV.

According to Anadolu Agency, the firm noted that the output of a fourth reactor was also reduced to 50%. EDF reportedly faced the same problem a year ago, when four of its reactors automatically shut down. The last reactor was not reconnected to the national grid until about 10 days later.

Rising ocean temperatures and overfishing are considered among the factors behind the proliferation of these marine animals along the coastline. Jellyfish typically thrive in warmer water, and France, along with other European countries, has this summer faced record heat waves.

The incident comes as France's nuclear fleet already reached a record level of outages linked to drought and heat waves, with 15.6% of capacity unavailable on Sunday, according to calculations based on data published by EDF since 2015.