Suppresed Video of Japanese Reactor Sodium Leak

James Hardine writes "Following an announcement this week that the infamous Japanese Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor would be re-opened with a new plutonium core, Wikileaks has released suppressed video footage of the disaster that led to its closure in 1995. The video shows men in silver 'space suits' exploring the reactor in which sodium compounds hang from the air ducts like icicles. Unlike conventional reactors, fast-breeder reactors, which 'breed' plutonium, use sodium rather than water as a coolant. This type of coolant creates a potentially hazardous situation as sodium is highly corrosive and reacts violently with both water and air. Government officials at first played down the extent of damage at the reactor and denied the existence of a videotape showing the sodium spill. The deputy general manager, Shigeo Nishimura, 49, jumped to his death the day after a news conference at which he and other officials revealed the extent of the cover-up. His family is currently suing the government at Japan's High Court."

Comments

Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming

[tjstork]

Unfortunately, even though it would probably be a boon to my home town, I can't agree with bringing back coal. All of the evidence just seems to point to critical public safety issues due to the inevitable pollution. I'm a believer that, when the world changes, you change with it

This is a pretty simplistic answer to change, unfortunately, and it fails to speak to how terrorism can spread like wildfire. Sure, you can say that we should all switch to some other way of life because we are screwing the planet, but, at the end of the day, you are but a man with a can of tuna saying that the dozen people in the lifeboat have to share. No, they do not. they could throw you overboard and take your tuna. Or, they could just eat you.

Coal mining isn't inherently bad. No resource extraction really is. It's just that 6 billion people can't live the way a billion people used to, and that ultimately begs the question, what if the world only had a population of 400 million Americans, and there was nobody else?

I guarantee you that your coal miner would be tempted to nuke the rest of the planet and keep his job, rather than uproot his entire family because some other uppity pricks from DC want him to "change."