Reference no: EM132104252

Nuclear Accident at Prototype Fast Breeder reactor

On December 8, 1995, a prototype nuclear reactor, Monju, located in Tsuruga City, 350km west of Tokyo, was operating at 40% power. The Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp (PNC), a government controlled organization, operated this reactor. At 19:47 high temperature liquid sodium coolant at one of the three secondary heat exchangers started leaking through a broken thermometer cover on the piping and it ignited on contact with air. It could have been a simple fire caused by the leakage of chemically reactive but non-radioactive sodium coolant. But due to the delay in shutting down of the reactor, 640kg of the sodium leaked in 3 hours and caused some unexpected damage by the fire and chemical reactions to the surrounding structure.

The PNC had been always asked by neighbors as well as anti-nuclear organizations whether their nuclear reactors are absolutely safe. They felt constrained to reply "yes" under the circumstances. Under these conditions, the initial cover up of hiding the videotapes taken at the site and of showing them after editing and the PNC's delay (of about one hour) in informing the neighboring community agencies of the accident ignited a fierce protest by the public.

The cover up decision was made by managers including ex-engineers. The delay of informing the accidents is mainly due to lack of the system oversight and to the bureaucracy within the PNC organization. These caused loss of public trust in general and have delayed the several tens of billion dollar project at least 6 years, although the government wanted to resume the project as soon as possible.

Q1: Comment on the above issue of PNC using the six thinking hats tool.