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US To Send Radiation-Hardened Robots To Japan
CWmike writes "The United States is sending specialized robots to Japan to help officials there get control of the Fukushima nuclear power plants damaged in this month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Dr. Peter Lyons, an acting assistant secretary for nuclear energy with the DoE, said the robots, which could be sent into areas that would be dangerous for humans to enter because of high radiation levels, could begin to give officials readings on the environment inside the nuclear power plants. Lyons told the US Senate on Tuesday, 'We are moving expeditiously to ship not only the robots but also operators who perhaps will be used to train Japanese operators. We don't know yet how close the operators will need to be to the site.' Asked about getting information about the state of the damaged reactors, Lyons said the robots could provide some information. 'Certainly not all we need, but some,' he said."
How about that. The US is sending robots to Japan. For our next trick, we will sell coal to Newcastle.
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Why wasn't this done sooner? And while I'm asking, how come we didn't fly in power generators to keep the pumps running before things started to melt?
Oh wait, that would cost money, and the people with the money can just move. Didn't Marx write something about that? Oh well, all anybody can remember about him is that some dictator or another used his books for rhetoric + free advertising.
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So why doesn't Japan already have radiation hardened robots? They have a good number of nuclear power plants, an advanced robotics industry, why the hell didn't the Japanese build any of this type of robot?
This is the second shipment of US robots to go over.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215346/U.S._to_send_radiation_hardened_robots_to_Japan?taxonomyId=12
I am a bit surprised that Japan didn't have a more robust robotic response handy(yes, delicate digital circuitry does not mix well with radiation; but RF-controlled large scale model vehicles can be had in fairly large sizes with fairly primitive analog, and thus comparatively rad-hard, controllers), I assume that the general mayhem of earthquake and tsunami had something to do with it.
On the other hand, though, it isn't a complete surprise that the US might have more radiation-specific robots: Since the US was among the earliest and largest-scale users of nuclear technology, they have a fair few "Christ, guys, what the hell were we thinking at the time?" sites and designs that need to be monitored(and, unlike the former USSR, who also has their share, didn't suffer a major economic contraction right about when they needed to start monitoring them). Plus, I suspect that rad-hard robotics control systems can borrow R&D and component economies of scale from the space program, which also has to send semi-autonomous systems into fairly energetic environments and have them not fail. Components designed for space use are not exactly cheap(BAE's RAD750 is essentially a $200,000 G3-era PPC board...); but cheaper than doing things in one-offs.
Latest news is that things are progressively becoming worse. Radiation OUTSIDE the evac zone is now exceeding the safe limits in some towns.
People in towns outside the evac region are being told to prepare to leave if conditions worsen.
This disaster appears to unfold like many others, with repeated assurances that things are OK and will be contained at this point, followed by failure and progressively worse conditions.
Radioactivity in the seawater outside the Fukushima plant continues to increase, and is now at the worst levels seen since the disaster. This is thought to be a sign that water is leaking into and back out of the core through cracks in the containment. Tepco is accused of covering up the worst problems.
I think they're out of options by now. Man I hate groupthink .. err.. I mean "culture", sometimes.. there are many aspects of Japanese culture that I find interesting and enjoyable, but a lot of the "honour" stuff has always seemed a bit much. Especially if it causes nuclear materials to blow around the rest of the world.
which is totally what she said
Sounds like the plot of an Anime movie...
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They key here is "radiation hardened", the robots and cameras will both be so, they are from Idaho National Laboratory, the nation's Nuclear R&D facility. Your PC or typical hobby type remote controlled gear would go ape-shit in a high rad environment from charged particles being created in the silicon.
The problems with TEPCO and the current crisis will continue with or without the former CEO, as they have for decades
Ah ha! I knew something was fishy about this story... Taisei set to introduce robots for N-cleanup. I knew my faith in Japanese robotics wasn't misplaced. This is just a PR stunt by a iRobot.
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I heard France was even sending robots, the only question is are they to help aid or fight the malfunctioning Japanese robots?
It's like the mind going AWOL, it's there somewhere
Domo Arigato, Mr. hardened-against-radiation Roboto!
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I think it has to do more with the war on terror. A lot of these iRobot bots are seeing service as IED disarming and cleaning paths. I'm not surprised to learn the US has radiation hardened ones too as disarming a dirty bomb probably will become a necessity some day.
Hey, I think I saw that one. That's the one where the ugly garbage cleaning robot and the elegant, nimble robot fall in love.
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Yay for urgency. Fresh water is finally being hauled in by the US navy as well ... about two weeks after they ran out of coolant inventory.
Will there be a reckoning for this foot dragging? No one responsible for Fukushima has acted with anything like the urgency we should expect of companies and governments that operate these reactors.
Hardened robots mean we may soon learn how much spent fuel got lofted by the fires. Brace yourself; every power reactor incident in history has surprised the engineers when they finally got eyeballs on the problem. Credible and well meaning people denied major core melt at TMI-2 for six years until the first camera was lowered into the RPV.
TEPCO officially announced they're scrapping reactors 1 through 4. This is a formality really; recovering those reactors is not feasible. The important thing to notice is that this omits 5 and 6. Those reactors will be put on-line again, just like TMI-1 and Chernobyl 1, 2, and 3. They know, however, that it is much too early to float that balloon.
I am a nuclear advocate. I just don't defend incompetence, poor judgment or neglect. There just isn't any room for it if you're going to burn matter and expect the trust of the people that grant you the liberty.
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I can't tell if you're serious or not, but here goes..
IC are sensitive to external radiation. rad-hardened robots use circuitry and components that have been rad-hardened.
That's why, for example, you can't just throw the latest Pentium Whatever into the Space Shuttle's avionics, because a stray alpha or beta particle, and ZAP -- the chip ain't working right.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Seriously, if they'd had a reliable backup diesel generator we wouldn't have these problems in the first place.
It's pretty easy to sit back and do an armchair analysis of the situation after the shit has already hit the fan.
Its not quite armchair analysis when its standard operating procedure at other sites.
The flooding caused by the tsunami knocked those generators offline. I live in an area that's prone to flooding and it's harder than you think to keep even a small generator out of harm's way when the water level starts rising.
And in southern california a power plant on the coast has backup generators in storage farther inland on higher ground. I'm not saying the so cal plant is necessarily better designed or prepared, I'm am just arguing against the armchair claim on this particular backup generator point.