Bird Poop Shut Down Indian Point Nuclear Plant

It seems that it was a nice steamy pile of bird poop that was responsible for shutting down Indian Point Nuclear Plant last December.

While analyzing a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Entergy, the company that runs the plant found that  a string of droppings from a "large bird" that fell onto some electrical equipment. This caused the reactor's automatic shutdown to trip. The plant was shut down for three days.

Reported by the NY Post, company officials said:

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 droppings did not put the plant in any danger of causing harm to the public. This particular unplanned shutdown was the 13th since 2012.