Monthly Archives: March 2011

Nuclear Teleoperations isn’t a new idea

Posted on March 16, 2011 by engineerzero

In 1963 came Mobot.

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Fukushima: constructing containment buildings out of shipping containers

Posted on March 16, 2011 by engineerzero

Containments for the damaged reactor buildings can be rapidly constructed out of intermodal shipping containers. Shown here are forty-foot units. Approximately 1500 are used to build the walls. At $5000 per unit, the walls can be constructed for $7,500,000 in … Continue reading →

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Fukushima: How to Cool the Fuel Rods

Posted on March 15, 2011 by engineerzero

I read this morning that the expended fuel rods at Fukushima are stored in a pool above the reactor core. If the reactor has a meltdown, the pool is damaged and will leak, exposing the fuel rods to air, which … Continue reading →

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International Pi(e) Day

Posted on March 15, 2011 by engineerzero

Yes, there is an International Pi Day, according to wikipedia and even the United States Congress. And Google too — so that makes it official. In case you didn’t bother to check the link and couldn’t guess, the reason this … Continue reading →

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Minor DIY surgery on a TV set

Posted on March 15, 2011 by engineerzero

My nephew bought a TV at Goodwill for just fifteen dollars the other day, so that he and his friend can play XBox games side by side with their own screens in my apartment. I’m such a pushover that I … Continue reading →

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How to provide pump power at Fukushima

Posted on March 14, 2011 by engineerzero

Normally, I wouldn’t think myself qualified to offer insight on how to cool a reactor plant in meltdown, but then I read this in the “New York Times: Christopher D. Wilson, a reactor operator and later a manager at Exelon’s … Continue reading →

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Neighborhood Power Plants: An Alternative to Catastrophe and Collapse

Posted on March 14, 2011 by engineerzero

Today was a gloomy day here in the Seattle region. The sky was overcast and it was nonstop raining. I happened to be driving through downtown around noontime when I saw a sign which gave the solar flux: .23 kw. … Continue reading →

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Can robots stop a meltdown?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by engineerzero

Forbes Magazine, “Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe Escalates in Japan – ‘Worse than Chernobyl’”: “The electrical grid is down. The emergency diesel generators have been damaged. The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying on battery power, which will only … Continue reading →

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Just to replace a laptop screen cable

Posted on March 12, 2011 by engineerzero

So my nephew’s T*sh*b* laptop screen was blinking when he tilted it, and now it doesn’t work at all. Most likely reasons, according to internet forum gurus, are the screen cable or the inverter. Okay, we’ll just open up the … Continue reading →

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Pricing a Mining Robot: Communications

Posted on March 11, 2011 by engineerzero

So I want to build a teleoperated mining robot to operate over the internet. I provided a graphical overview of the system here. Today my nephew and I priced the communications-link components. Supposing for the moment that I actually know … Continue reading →

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