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Japan Readies Robot For Work At Crippled Nuclear Reactor
angry tapir writes "A Japanese robotics lab has developed a new emergency response prototype that will soon be put to work at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan. The robot, called 'Rosemary,' is about the size of a lawn mower and has four extended treaded feet that swivel up and down to help it climb over obstacles."
It issues press releases that say "everything is under control, nothing to see here, move along". When pressed, it says "what radiation?".
I see that it can carry about 130lb. I don't see anything about mechanized welding, or drilling, or any other kind of pipe fitting or other heavy work that would be useful in a damaged machine that one is trying to stabilize. What is the real purpose of this robot? If it's to test the tech to see if they can produce it domestically instead of relying on American robots, then that's cool, but it's not exactly something earth-shattering when there have already been robots exploring the ruins and taking samples. If there's some greater purpose or more industrial use then I would like to know what that purpose is.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"global environmental catastrophe"
them's fightin' words.
gonna need a rundown of the effects this will have.
the linked article is quite the troll, too. peppered with terms like "it is my belief", or "probably". it's an interesting opinion, but i call shenanigans on any authority the writer claims (and he claims a lot - talking about TMI like it's at all relevant).
To be fair, since March 2011 there has been a lot of catastrophic articles about "what if a meltdown?" (there was a meltdown) "what if another earthquakes?" (there has been a lot of 7+ aftershocks not far from Fukushima). As of today, while the situation is bad, it stays far from the cataclysmic future that was predicted in March/April 2011.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Spent nuclear fuel rods isn't the real danger. The real danger is the iron used in the steel construction of the pool. When that steel hits the ocean water of the next tsunami (which is all but guaranteed to happen in the next 20 days), it will slowly dissolve and raise the iron content of the Pacific ocean to a level above what life can survive. I'm talking a huge global catastrophy of dead fish, whales, plankton, seaweeds, etc, becuase of elevated levels of iron. All the biological material will then float to the top of the ocean where it will collect, and since fish are full of oils, it is only a matter of time before lightning or some sailer tossing his cigarette initiates a conflagration that consumes all the world's oxygen in a huge fire. 7 Billion people dead, suffocated to death, because the Japanese are negligent about their nuclear facility.
Fearmongering from idiots. Am I doing it right?
jesus. on one side we have tepco and the iaea (both of whom have enormous vested interests in maintaining the reputation of nuclear power as being 100% A++++++++ safe would buy again!!), and on the other we have people claiming that the cores are currently melting through the earth into borneo and spawning lizard people.
as of right now, all that matters if that if a major quake hits, the fuel pools could very well collapse, and the sky shine caused by fractured and burning fuel rods will make further work at the site extremely difficult (i.e. deadly). sure, you can pretend that is never going to happen and is impossible, but unfortunately it's not. spent fuel will heat itself to combustion if not continuously cooled (otherwise why would you keep it in a continuously cooled pool.. duh) and the area is extremely prone to earthquakes.
hopefully tepco can build some haphazard crane apparatus and remove the spent fuel before something bad happens, but if not.. well.. sucks to be japanese!
The robot, called 'Rosemary,' is about the size of a lawn mower and has four extended treaded feet that swivel up and down to help it climb over obstacles.
But after a few hours in the Fukushima Daiichi EZ-Bake-Nuclear Oven, it will morph into this critter: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/Mechagodzilla.jpg.
Call it Rosilla. Maybe a real life Roseanne Barr can battle it, while crushing paper houses, and being attacked by plastic model tanks, with fire crackers on their gun barrels?
So what do they do with the highly radioactive robot Rosemary after it crawls out of the reactor? Can they de-radioactivize it, or something like that? Or does it get buried in a concrete coffin for future generations to deal with?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
The guy is a professional troll (actual name Mark Stephens). Literally, he writes stupid shit designed to inflame people. He's wrong all the time (he predicted big Y2K problems on account of Windows NT), he's a liar (claimed to have a PhD from Stanford, was in fact a TA) and so on.
Don't give his dumb ass the ad revenue from links.
Just as a simple counterpoint, his data about earthquakes is totally fucked. This was the biggest quake on record in Japan, previous winner was an 8.6 in 1707. Also, while quakes happen over there all the time, they don't all happen in the same spot. For example in 2003 there was a pretty big one in Hokkaido, an 8.3, that only caused one death. However if you look at a map you find that Hokkaido is quite a distance from Tohoku where the last quake was off of. So even if a quake happens in 10 years (like he has any idea if that will happen) there's no saying if it happens in the same place.
Guy is a moronic troll that has made a good living of it for years. Stop feeding him.
I think what some people forget is that the plant was hit with the worst natural disaster, short of a meteor strike, that it could be. A 9.0 quake, which are exceedingly rare (and remember the scale is logarithmic) and a massive tsunami. Then there were a number of fuckups in the response, like not having the right kind of generator on hand. All that, and it still didn't "do a Chernobyl."
None of that is to say it is perfectly safe, but it should provide some perspective on the thing.
These statistics assume that the very probable big earthquakes that will hit Japan in the foreseeable future will actually damage the Fukushima site in such a way that Cesium 137 in significant quantities will become either airborne or diluted in sea water. Sure, there is a risk, especially for "minor" radiation leaks, but a catastrophe scenario in which all the 85 chernobyls worth of Cesium 137 will actually be released in the wild is extremely unlikely unless Godzilla will come to the site, eat all the Cesium and starts farting.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
there is a 90 percent chance of a large earthquake in the minimum three year...[snip]...magical thinking
So your saying that specific area is levelled by a major earthquake and a tsunami every 3yrs or so? Doesn't it strike you as odd that the Japs would have to rebuild every 3yrs or so with the full knowledge that they will have to do it all over again in another 3yrs? It is not remarkable that Fukushima Daiichi was built 41yrs ago, so by your calculations had already survived a dozen such events before it fell apart?
The incident was a catastrophe, with or without the nuclear reactors, there's no need for hyperbolic "what ifs" based on what are clearly dubious claims.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
And despite the things that you probably said in your TL;DR post more people die from basically any other form of energy generation than have or likely will die from either Fukushima Daiichi or Chernobyl.
Banqiao dam? Coal mine accidents? Toxic chemicals from solar panels? No, but the real problem is 2 japanese workers who were hospitalized for 1 day for mild radiation exposure and a population that might have cancer levels slightly above "margin of error" compared to control.
Hooray for perspective!
You forgot to say that it will cause all PCs to be infected with a strange, all-powerful virus that can only be removed with MyCleanPC.
I think what some people forget is that the plant was hit with the worst natural disaster, short of a meteor strike, that it could be.
I think what you're forgetting is that a lot of people didn't think what happened could happen. Now you're making a totally unsupported declarative statement about the same thing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Best estimates put any earthquake centered around Tokyo at magnitude-7 - the effect felt at Fukushima would be negligible.
...the robot replied, "Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they're making me clean up dangerous radioactive waste."
Sure, there is. Where's the energy for that second quake going to come from?
The same place the other quake came from. Can you state with 100 percent surety that all the energy in the first quake was spent, and that it was starting again at zero.
Do you know the if the rate of movement has remained the same as prior to the last earthquake? Are all variables the same? If the predictions are for an earthquake of X magnitude every X years, is that a lock?
You are trying to play statistical games with a greater degree of confidence than the statisticians would be comfortable with.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.