US sending robots to Japan to help nuclear plant

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. government is sending some robotic help to Japan to help regain control of the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.

A top Energy Department official told a Senate panel Tuesday that a shipment of "radiation hardened robotics" will be sent to Japan to assist in the crisis. A department spokeswoman said a robotic device from the Energy Department's Idaho National Laboratory is being shipped to Japan along with several radiation-hardened cameras.

Peter Lyons, an acting assistant energy secretary, said Japanese officials were "very, very interested" in learning more about the capabilities of U.S robots. The United States is also sending robot operators who would be used to train Japanese operators, Lyons said.

Robots with electronics built to withstand radiation could presumably work in areas where radiation levels would harm or even kill a person. Workers at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been exposed to high levels of radiation and burned.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110330/D9M97GUO0.html

[snappyturtle]

1. THIS is the type of involvement I like to see the US engaging in. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

2. +1

:fistbump:

[dkf]

3. I read the Russians tried this at Chernobyl but their robots couldn't withstand the radiation.

Hopefully these robots can withstand things better.

[Paradoxical]

9. Those were robots from 25 years ago.

The most important issue is hardening the circuitry against electromagnetic interference and overload.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. At last!

this should have been done before.

[frebrd]

5. I would have thought....

that would be the first thing we'd do if we have such technology.

:shrug:

[Kalun D]

6. TOO LATE

It's melted through one of the reactor vessels, all that's left is the outer containment and then it will hit the water table and explode.

This is going to be way worse than Chernobyl. It's 4 reactors, it's right on the ocean. It has Plutonium, I don't think Chernobyl even had plutonium.

[girl gone mad]

7. I think they have enough opportunity to cool the molten fuel..

before it hits the water table. It's definitely not too late to act.

[Paradoxical]

10. It doesn't just hit the water table and "explode".

[liberation]

15. I believe the risk of explosion comes from the zircaloy in the rods

But it should reach ignition temperature before the core is hot enough to melt into the ground...

[Paradoxical]

11. Also, the Chernobyl reactor produced plutonium as a byproduct.

[grahamhgreen]

8. No nukes. No way. No how. Wind is cheaper, safer, faster.

[Lasher]

12. Domo arigato

Mr Roboto.

[AndyTiedye]

13. What Took Them So Long?

I presume we are sending radiation-hardened robots intended to function in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Japan must have plenty of robots of their own, and I would have expected to see them deployed,
but perhaps they are too sensitive to radiation.

Or perhaps they just cost too much. TEPCO seems to have a level of disregard for the safety of its workers that some of us would call "murder".

In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.

Since they say they were "reusing" the fuel, we must assume that this was the "mixing" part of the "mixed oxide" (MOX) fuel, in which they were mixing in the plutonium. They irradiated hundreds of workers and killed two, not to cope with some dire emergency, but just to save a few yen.

Not much concern for the safety of the public either:

In 1989 Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened — for years. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iU29-CtBza8xA01r9IzPwksyP1WQ?docId=9e518d4998224fd8b705cc3fe9903eb6

[Kablooie]

14. Finally! Why didnt they do this last week?