Bird Poop Shuts Down NY Nuclear Power Plant

All the news that's fit to print probably doesn't apply here but I thought this was funny. There's an old nuclear power plant that's been around for ages located in Buchanan, New York just a little south of Peekskill. It's on the east banks of the Hudson River, around 25 miles north of New York City. Apparently back in December, the plant shut down because of bird droppings that fell from the skies and landed on some electrical equipment. This caused the plant's reactor to shut down automatically. You'd think they would be prepared for such an event, but apparently not. 

The plant, when it's in operation, generates something around 2,000 megawatts of electrical power. After the shutdown, NY Governor Cuomo ordered an investigation and part of the report is reproduced here:

“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.

“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.”

The outage was the thirteenth unplanned shutdown of the plant since June 2012. It isn't clear how many of the other shutdowns were also due to bird droppings.