World's largest concrete pump heading to Japan from GA

[sixmile]

What's going on? They're covering the Fukushima site in concrete. They're moving the pump off a U.S.-based MOX fuels site to ship to Japan.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2011-03-31/srs-concrete-pump-heading-japan-nuclear-site?v=1301580247

'The world’s largest concrete pump, deployed at the construction site of the U.S. government’s $4.86 billion mixed oxide fuel plant at Savannah River Site, is being moved to Japan in a series of emergency measures to help stabilize the Fukushima reactors.

“The bottom line is, the Japanese need this particular unit worse than we do, so we’re giving it up,” said Jerry Ashmore, whose company, Augusta-based Ashmore Concrete Contractors, Inc., is the concrete supplier for the MOX facility.
The 190,000-pound pump, made by Germany-based Putzmeister has a 70-meter boom and can be controlled remotely, making it suitable for use in the unpredictable and highly radioactive environment of the doomed nuclear reactors in Japan, he said.
“There are only three of these pumps in the world, of which two are suited for this work, so we have to get it there as soon as we can,” Ashmore said in an interview with The Chronicle today. “Time is very much a factor.”

more at link

[benld74]

1. And this one is NEVER coming back either,,,

[devils chaplain]

8. i sure hope not! N/T

[progressoid]

2. Wow.

[marions ghost]

3. from the article

The 190,000-pound pump, made by Germany-based Putzmeister has a 70-meter boom and can be controlled remotely, making it suitable for use in the unpredictable and highly radioactive environment of the doomed nuclear reactors in Japan, he said.

“There are only three of these pumps in the world, of which two are suited for this work, so we have to get it there as soon as we can,” Ashmore said in an interview with The Chronicle today. “Time is very much a factor.”
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Only three of these pumps in the world (!?)

Really not enough, the way things are going.

[localroger]

6. It's a very specialized tool

In most applications, you don't want remote control for concrete pumps; the device and product are so expensive that it's worth paying one or more operators to tend the machine. Making a concrete pump that can be safely remote controlled is extremely difficult and complex; you need all kinds of sensors and actuators that simply aren't necessary on a normal pump because there would be a human being able to observe flow and set couplings. You'll notice that the job the pump is being pulled from is another nuclear site; a radioactive site is one of the few reasons you'd want or need such a thing.

[marions ghost]

9. from what I can see

we need one for every nuke plant in existence, parked alongside...

[intaglio]

4. Interesting line at the end

"Time is very much a factor"

Says to me that something at Fukushima needs to be buried urgently and before other operations, like flushing with non-salt water or inspection for corium outside containment.

Worrying

[crickets]

5. K&R

[MadHound]

7. About damn time,

I think that TEPCO has needlessly endangered and polluted the surrounding countryside because they continued on with the futility of trying to drown the reactors in water, when in reality they just needed to bury the damn thing.

Hopefully a large shipment of boric acid is on the way to Fukushima as well.

[HEyHEY]

10. Pfff, major mistake.... a Schwing is far superior....

[tiny elvis]

11. let us leave it

though the whole third sentence would send schoolboys into uncontrollable snickers, let us leave it

[HEyHEY]

12. Ha ha, I was just taking this time to show off my extremely limited knowledge of pump trucks

Cause my best friend growing up's family business was that.