Droppings them in it: Bird mess shuts down nuclear power plant

Bird droppings are suspected of causing the shutdown of a nuclear power plant outside New York City. The mess may have caused an electric arc between wires on a feeder line at a transmission tower at the Indian Point reactor. As a result, the plant automatically went offline for three days in December. Entergy Corp, which owns the plant on the Hudson River, told regulators bird “streaming” was to blame.

Damage was caused by a bird streamer. Streamers are long streams of excrement from large birds that are often expelled as a bird takes off from a perch

Entergy Corp report

It is not known what type of bird is suspected in the incident at the 40-year-old reactor. Plant managers told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission they would install bird guards on transmission towers. Entergy said there was no release of radiation or chemicals from the outage. The regulator says other wildlife has been known to spark power cuts on transmission lines, with squirrels the biggest offenders.

indian point