FPL: we don't need water, by gimleteye

Japanese activists recently released a never-before-seen videotape of a 1995 nuclear accident at the Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Japan, that uses highly volatile sodium instead of water as a coolant. Worth looking at, considering the obstacles to siting two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. According to activists, the plant came close to detonating.

It is interesting to juxtapose the photo, below, of idiotic Miami traffic-- the results of elected officials allowing 10 or 11 lanes of traffic to filter down to a 1 lane exit ramp are so painfully visible--with the hazards of allowing the same elected officials to pass judgment on two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point.
Following an announcement this week that the infamous Japanese Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor would be reopened, activists in Japan have leaked suppressed video footage of the disaster that led to its closure in 1995. or YouTube (without translation) (hit read more)
The infamous sodium spill, an accident that long ago earned itself a place in the history of nuclear power in Japan, has returned one more time to haunt government and industry officials with images they had hoped they would never see again.
Named after the Buddhist divinity of wisdom, Monju, located in Japan's Fukui prefecture, is Japan's only fast-breeder reactor. 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.
On December 8th, 1995, 700 kg of molten sodium leaked from the secondary cooling circuit of the Monju reactor, resulting in a fire that made headlines across the country. Although the accident itself did not result in a radiation leak, many argue that the sodium spill itself came very close to detonating Monju, a catastrophe which would have spilled plutonium into the environment.
Following the fire, officials at the government-owned Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC), operators of Monju, first played down the extent of damage at the reactor and denied the existence of a videotape showing the sodium spill. Later, they released still shots only, showing things like intact pipes and clean floors and claiming that there had only been “a minor leakage in the secondary sodium loop [that had] caused some fumes”. While short videos were released, these were edited to hide the full extent of the damage. Further complicating the story, the deputy general manager of the general affairs department at the PNC, Shigeo Nishimura, 49, jumped to his death the day after a news conference where he and other officials revealed the extent of the cover-up.
Starting from September of last year, Nishimura's family brought the story back to light in a trial against the PNC at Japan's High Court. It is in this context that a never-before-seen video (the so-called “2 o'clock video”), which shows men in silver "space suits" exploring the reactor in which sodium compounds hang from the air ducts like icicles, has finally come out, first described a group called News for the People in Japan (NPJ) and also by Japanese lawyer Tokyodo at his blog.