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Suppresed Video of Japanese Reactor Sodium Leak

Posted by kdawson on from the all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace dept.

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."

5 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Nuclear Power and Global Warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Well I sure am glad that breeder reactors are as safe as proponents of nuclear power tell us. I'd hate to think of switching to nuclear power on the promises of better safety with new, high technology reactors only to have another nuclear accident which irreversibly contaminates the groundwater, or kills people. That won't happen with breeder reactors, right? They're intrinsically safe.

    1. Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming by Kingrames · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Technically "meltdown" is when the plant shuts down and the carbon rods retract.

      It's an explosion, specifically coolant pipes bursting, that's the real threat.

      You see the plant has to balance the generation of power with the cooling down of the pipes transferring water (or some other material) around everything, so that the pipes don't burst. if the pipes burst, radioactive water vapor is released. that's a worst case scenario. The carbon rods are the implement used to generate power. the more of them there are exposed, the more power generated, and the more you have to worry about coolant. The retraction of the carbon rods is called meltdown.

      Don't go thinking that it's the meltdown that's the bad thing. When the plant experiences a meltdown, the city or whatever loses power, but the real catastrophe is averted. Naturally you don't want a meltdown, but if anyone advertises a meltdown-free nuclear power plant, run screaming in the other direction. The alternative is far worse.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
    2. Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming by tjstork · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      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."

      --
      This is my sig.
  2. Regarding Japan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Where are my Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei subs? Episode 4 aired and afk hasn't released episode 3 yet.

    All Fucking Kunts

  3. Re:radioactive sodium too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    You could have had a single-word, witty retort to an obvious racist joke that would have been both correct, and without any single comeback even being possible.

    Quite possibly, the hardest thing to do on the Internet. Nay. It is the hardest.

    But then you had to go look like a total idiot by explaining what everybody already knew.

    Dumbass.