Author Archives: engineerzero

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About engineerzero

Once and future engineer.

Updated General Purpose Robot

So far, my robot designs have been pretty much just conceptual, but now I’m starting to think about how they might actually be built to serve a real world purpose. Hence, this shot at a general purpose robot: The red … Continue reading

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Finally, mention of robots to Fukushima

Japan Races to Restart Reactors’ Cooling System At the request of the Japanese military, a Massachusetts company, iRobot, said it put four robots on a plane for Japan on Friday. Colin Angle, the chief executive, said it had sent two … Continue reading

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US Radiation Monitoring Links

No endorsements, these are just links that I’ve found: Online Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detector Map Radiation Network EPA network

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Fukushima and Teleoperated Robots (Video)

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Nuclear Expert: “Get a camera in there!”

Frank von Hippel, a genuine nuclear expert, talks with Rachel Maddow: He mentions that the problems are that ‘too much’ of the roof is intact to get hoses in, and they can’t see where to shoot the water until they … Continue reading

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Radiation hardening for telebots

I was asked whether teleoperated robots could function in a high-radiation environment. I found a link here, which indicates that microelectronics can survive thousands of rads before degradation. That would be many times a lethal dose for humans. The electronics … Continue reading

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Nuclear Teleoperations isn’t a new idea

In 1963 came Mobot.

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Fukushima: constructing containment buildings out of shipping containers

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

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

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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