Suppresed Video of Japanese Reactor Sodium Leak 341
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."
radioactive sodium too (Score:5, Informative)
Youtube link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Video down? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Youtube link (Score:5, Informative)
Safe Nukes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nothing will stop the resurgance of nuclear pow (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Safe Nukes (Score:2, Informative)
The fast breeder or fast breeder reactor (FBR) is a fast neutron reactor designed to breed fuel by producing more fissile material than it consumes. The FBR is one possible type of breeder reactor. [wikipedia.org]
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:5, Informative)
The Japanese won't put soy sauce on rice.
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:5, Informative)
Na-24 beta decays into Mg-24, which is stable and not dangerous.
Re:Also (Score:5, Informative)
Note to web "masters" everywhere: you cannot distribute huge files to millions of people using MySQL and SSL. Full stop. Upload that shit to Amazon S3 or Akamai or YouTube or _anything_ other than mediawiki. Thanks!
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/np-risk.htm [isu.edu]
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
Coal mining accidents might not incur the risk of significant radioactive contamination, but the combustion of coal does release massive amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere [ornl.gov], and people living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to more radiation than those living near nuclear power plants.
I've always found these statistics to be interesting:
Of course, in the case of an extreme nuclear accident, as in Chernobyl, we have a very big problem to deal with right away that wouldn't be possible with coal. But I think it's worth remembering that a great deal of radioactive material is accumulating from coal-fired power plants, and that could someday be a major problem too. Nuclear power is not the only source of radiation released because of human activity.
Re:I find it odd (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste [sciam.com]
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:4, Informative)
Except that the leak was in the secondary loop, which is never in contact with the core, and hence not radioactive. Had the leak been inside the primary loop you wouldn't have been able to walk up to it with a video camera because there would have been quite a bit of radiation shield and concrete in the way.
Re:Sodium reactors and the Navy (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, and btw, the summary is misleading. Sodium is very corrosive to concrete and a lot of other materials, but provided it remains pure ( i.e, doesn't mix with water / air ) it is in fact very non-corrosive to steel, which is one of the reasons why it is used. It is certainly a lot less corrosive than 300 C water with boric acid in it.
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, breeders can do both. Early examples were primarily for weapons grade Pu production but many designs exist geared more for commercial power production. The Pu they produce is well suited for further use in a reactor, but is much more difficult to process into weapons material. That, of course, is a big plus these days when the world has quite enough bombs.
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, in the case of an extreme nuclear accident, as in Chernobyl, we have a very big problem to deal with right away that wouldn't be possible with coal. But I think it's worth remembering that a great deal of radioactive material is accumulating from coal-fired power plants, and that could someday be a major problem too. Nuclear power is not the only source of radiation released because of human activity.
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
A minor correction... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:why sodium? (Score:5, Informative)
a) It is liquid at temperatures suitable for the reactor operation meaning you don't need any pressure in the cooling system. In contrast pressurized water reactors and gas cooled reactors need to keep the entire core under high pressure.
b) Sodium is a metal and hence conducts heat very well, this allows you to build a very compact reactor that is still capable of dissipating its heat after shutdown even if the cooling pumps were to fail.
c) Sodium doesn't absorb neutrons nearly as much as water does, and this allows you to build a reactor which produces more plutonium than it consumes, thus eliminating the need to enrich uranium.
d) Sodium atoms are heavier than hydrogen atoms, so the neutrons will not lose their energy as quickly. As a consequence the neutron spectrum is a lot harder, and capable of destroying much of the long-lived waste. The Waste from a breeder reactor would hit uranium levels of radioactivity in 300 years rather than tens of thousands of years.
e)While sodium is corrosive when mixed with air or water, pure sodium is almost completely non-corrosive to steel. This is in sharp contrast to 300 C pressurized water with boric-acid dissolved in it. A sodium cooled reactor generally experiences virtually no corrosion to the reactor core unless an accident occurs.
Basically, if it wasn't for the fire-hazard sodium would be close to an ideal reactor coolant.
Re:Sodium reactors and the Navy (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Youtube link (Score:3, Informative)
NPJ Video News No. 3
Video taken just after the sodium leak accident at Monju, hidden by the PNC - the so-called 2 o'clock video
Just after the accident, the PNC sent employees to the site to film the leak.
However, due to the graphic nature of the footage, the PNC hid it
The PNC explained that they hid it because "it has no value"
With your own eyes, we want you to judge why the PNC hid the video
This video was not only hidden at Monju (Fukui Prefecture),
it was also discovered later that there was another copy hidden at the head office
An employee who had to lie at the press conference committed suicide right afterwards
What was it that drove him to commit suicide... Think about this
Nishimura-san's death is also being reported on at "Joho Tsushin Sokushin Keikaku" (tokyodo-2005) blog
Search in the blog for "Nishimura" (è¥æ? in Japanese)
Employees heading for the site of the leak
Sodium mist fills the air
Footsteps on white sodium
Repeatedly checking something
Camera also moving toward the scene
Visibility is very poor
The sodium "snow" is so deep that footsteps do not leave a trace
The mist gets deeper
Seems like they found something
A small mountain of sodium
Camera angle graphically tells the story
Going back quickly
Emergency telephone
The video continues a bit longer, but the important part is up to here
To make the most of Nishimura-san's death, all we who live in Japan
must think of what needs to be done
NPJ Video News No. 3
Re:why sodium? (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is when Na comes in contact with water, it gives off hydrogen gas, and being that the rxn is exothermic, the hydrogen can be ignited resulting in an explosion.
2Na + 2H20 --> H2 + 2NaOH
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:5, Informative)
Oh if that was the ONLY thing that was wrong with it...
1)The end of the control rods were made of graphite, which accelerated the reaction rather than slowing it when the operators pushed the panic button.
2)The channels that contained the control rods were far too narrow, causing the control rods to get jammed when they deformed due to the intense heat.
3)The reactor did not have a containment building, allowing the radioactive gases to escape into the atmosphere after the accident blew the roof of the reactor itself.
4)The reactor core was unusually large, containing much more nuclear fuel than other reactor designs, thus making the radioactive release worse.
5)The reactor was staffed with uneducated workers that didn't have significant experience with nuclear reactors.
6)The operators were not told about the design problems with the reactors even thou they were well known at the time.
7)The operators ran the reactor outside of safety regulations, withdrawing many more control rods than the reactor was designed to operate with ( that this was even possible is another design flaw ).
Re:why sodium? (Score:3, Informative)
Sodium still has some advantages thou, such as favorable melting/boiling points, no long lived radioactivity under neutron irradiation , low corrosion rates against steel, and superior heat conductivity.
Re:Nuclear Power and Global Warming (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste [sciam.com]
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:5, Informative)
Siiiigh, again.. The leak was in teh SECONDARY LOOP. It wasn't any radioactivity in it. Nada, zero, zip... Yes, it was a bad accident, but the only thing nuclear about it was that it occurred in a nuclear power plant. The same thing would be much less likely to occur in the radioactive primary loop, because that counts as part of the nuclear island and is hence under much stricter safety requirements.
Volume of sodium... (Score:1, Informative)
700kg of sodium, which has a density a little less than water (0.968g/cm^3), would be less than a cubic metre by volume (0.723m^3 or so, or about 723 Litres), and would fit into three bathtubs (filled to the edge, they're apparently about 300 Litres or so).
Conversion to Imperial or kegs of beer equivalents is left as an exercise for the reader.
Re:Youtube link (Score:3, Informative)
I give you one chance to guess why the reactor was built to carry the hot sodium far away from the reactor before using the heat from it to boil water for the turbines. Also, the white powder was probably not sodium ( sodium is silver-like in colour ) but rather sodium-oxides produces when the sodium is oxidized in the air.
Now for the record, had those pipes actually been carrying high-pressure water for a power turbine you would certainly be dead had they leaked. To achieve high turbine efficiency power plant engineers try to maximize the pressure and temperature on the hot side of the turbine, which means that if one of those pipes bursts when you are standing next to it, you are in deep shit. In fact Japanese workers have indeed died from steam pipes bursting at a nuclear power plant. Was no sodium involved in that one thou.
In general there is only one point in a sodium cooled power plant where water and sodium are even remotely close to one another, namely the secondary sodium-water heat exchanger. Mixing of sodium and water has occurred in Russian plants in the past, but it didn't cause any damage that was beyond repair, and no release of radioactive material.
Re:Also (Score:3, Informative)
If you use a lot of SSL/TLS (the S in HTTPS) you might need an SSL off-loader, a PCI based hardware accelerator or a CPU containing hardware crypto. The first one is most safe and can be very fast, a CPU with crypto (e.g. Sun T2) will beat it in performance per dollar. Then again, with most software/CPU aided cryptography the private keys will reside in main memory, which makes it possible to copy the key if the web server is compromised.
EC cryptography could dramatically reduce the CPU time needed for the (cryptographic) part of the SSL handshake, but unfortunately MS and the major certification authorities don't seem to be too happy to provide support for Elliptic Curve cryptography.
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:3, Informative)
1.) The 15 hour half-life of Na-24 prevented immediate entry to the reactor in case of repair. Five half lives (the standard assumed for total decay away) means you're cooling your heels for about three days before you can really do any work. It makes quick response - like the kind Monju would have liked to have done - very difficult, if not impossible. 2.) Sodium freezes at 208F (almost 100C). Freezing in the pipes can be very bad for decay heat removal, as well as putting undue stresses on the pipes. I have seen previously rectangular "pipes" get their sides sucked in when the sodium freezes - which is impressive because they were 1/8-inch thick metal walls. Hence, you have to keep the sodium hot to work on it.
Neither of the above are necessarily deal-killers, particularly for land-based reactors. Yes, you can work around the 15 hour half life of the sodium, but it sure makes reactor entry challenging in times of distress.
Re:radioactive sodium too (Score:3, Informative)
So you are right that sodium does not produce long-lived isotopes. But you are wrong that sodium cooled reactors are used in lieu of water or gas cooled reactors for that reason. Sodium cooled reactors are popular for fast breeder reactors. Water cooled reactors are popular for ease of use and maintenance which is why they are used widely in power generation.
Re:Youtube link (Score:3, Informative)
"Sodium mist fills the air" and "The mist gets deeper" -- the camera was out of focus and it was quite dark in there; no "sodium" mist; a second after they filmed the "sodium mist", the "mist" dissapeared. There was not enough light, and the operator had to use a large aperture, so the range at which the objects were in focus was short: move the camera from the back of the shining suit in front to the wall that's 3m away and you get "mist".
"Footsteps on white sodium" -- not sodium but sodium carbonate, which was used some 40 years ago for washing clothes by hand (prolonged use caused sores on skin, but by prolonged use I mean keeping your hands in warm water with 4-5 hours a day), and still is used in detergents, and sodium hydroxide, which you can buy in some shops, and is used for some household tasks, such as unclogging pipes. Ever bought those small bags with colored granules which are supposed to be miracle pipe uncloggers ? There is sodium hydroxide in that. Yes, it will damage your skin.
and a comment to "To make the most of Nishimura-san's death, all we who live in Japan must think of what needs to be done": how about toning down the obsession with saving face, this is what killed Nishimura-san, and it also prevented his bosses from being completely open about the accident.
The video is useless. It says nothing about the gravity of the accident, but instead can be misconstrued in many creative ways: in it you see people in shiny protective suits (which, btw, were not hermetically sealed) going through some rooms in a nuclear (oh, nuclear
Re:Mod parent up! (Score:3, Informative)
Westerners often eat cooked rice which is drier and doesn't stick by itself, so some type of sauce is usually added to make it stick together better on a fork.
Traditional Japanese (also Chinese and probably other *ese) traditionally eat rice which is moist and sticky by default, obviating any need to douse it with soy or other sauce. Sauce from the various dishes is acceptable.
Rice was not meant to be eaten in isolation, but that's exactly what happens when you put it onto a plate...
Re:what? - the white stuff isn't sodium (Score:1, Informative)
It's video interpretations like this that destroy the credibility of the anti-nuke crowd. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. The anti-nuke folks are primairly responsible for global warming because of their irrational fear of one of the safest forms of energy production. Breeder reactors for all!
Japan doesn't have a culture -- Japanese people do (Score:5, Informative)
There is also a wide spectrum of cooks having egos. (There is a bad habit among a certain type of Westerner to assume that any odd action taken by a Japanese person is because they are Japanese. That is one theory -- another is that the cook just can't be bothered to help you, or is excessively proud, or is just a disagreeable person. All of thsee will be right at least part of the time.) I assure you, if you visit enough hoity-toity restaraunts in NYC, you will fairly quickly find someone who would not be willing to accomodate a simple request that wasn't in their "vision" for the food. ("Where is the ketchup?" "THIS IS A FOI GRAS AND CAVIAR PATTE SERVED IN A LIGHT BALSAMIC VINAGRETTE."* "I like my foi gras with ketchup!"
(Sidenote: I do E->J and J->E translation in Japan as one of my work duties. I am not, however, a professional translator. The difference is that the folks who pay my salary pay me to *resolve* issues like "I just don't want squid" rather than just passively relaying the "Oh, we can't do that" response. I understand that the standard practice among professional translators is that you are supposed to not get in the way of the speaking parties at all -- this is why I am not a professional translator, I just translate for money.
P.S. For those of you considering a job in this general line of work, the pay is a heck of a lot better if you pitch yourself my way. Most clients do not appreciate the value of a beautifully articulated "The waitress says no" nearly as much as they do "OK, so here's what is going on here, and here is what I did to get you your squidless pizza. Aren't you glad you hired me." The same fundamental issue scales straight from "I can't give you pizza w/o squid" to "I can't approve that $1 million deal you are suggesting".)
* Sorry, I only eat at restaraunts that cost more than $15 when the client is paying, and then I'm having what he is having, so I have absolutely no clue whether this is actually a plausible French food combo or not. Bonus points: consultants get to eat at dinner, translators don't.