Tag Archives: meltdown

Fukushima: Cooling pools successfully doused

Posted on March 21, 2011 by engineerzero

The Nuclear Energy Institute reports: UPDATE AS OF 10:00 A.M. EDT, SUNDAY, MARCH 20: A two-part operation to spray water into the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4 ended just before 7 A.M. EDT. Japan’s defense ministry announced … Continue reading →

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Finally, mention of robots to Fukushima

Posted on March 19, 2011 by engineerzero

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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Fukushima and Teleoperated Robots (Video)

Posted on March 17, 2011 by engineerzero
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Nuclear Expert: “Get a camera in there!”

Posted on March 16, 2011 by engineerzero

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

Posted on March 16, 2011 by engineerzero

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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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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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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