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How To Take Apart Fukushima's 3 Melted-Down Reactors
the_newsbeagle writes "In Japan, workers have spent nearly three years on the clean-up and decommissioning of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. They only have 37 years to go. Taking apart the plant's three melted-down reactors is expected to take 40 years and cost $15 billion. The plant's owner, TEPCO, admits that its engineers don't yet know how they'll pull off this monumental task. An in-depth examination of the decommissioning process explains the challenges, such as working amid the radioactive rubble, stopping up the leaks that spill radioactive water throughout the site, and handling the blobs of melted nuclear fuel. Many of the tasks will be accomplished by newly invented robots that can go where humans fear to tread."
I figure a small 50-20 kiloton atomic bomb should do the trick...
Since they have a 40 year timeframe, they should just keep it contained for another decade or two and wait for superior robots to take over the task rather than relying on today's limited robots.
Before even finishing the summary my first thought was that this will result in some significant activity in the robotics industry.
Tunnel 100 ft. below the reactor and build a huge leak-proof chamber. Use controlled detonation to collapse the reactor, building, and all into this chamber. Fill it with water and close/seal it off. Build something cool on top.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Some tasks are difficult because of the assorted parameters that you have to adhere to while doing them. In this case, relatively low tolerance for irradiation of workers and human morbidity and mortality are probably major inconveniences.
This being so, it seems only logical to employ TEPCO management as decommisioning operators. It's not like they were good for whatever their existing job descriptions are, and we can safely value their radiation exposure as unimportant, or even a benefit.
I wonder where they got that estimate. At worst it should take them less than five years. What they're really saying is that they've got no clue, no plan, and no place to put the radioactive materials once they've got it sealed up.
Estimated time until the last of the responsible parties retires and no longer has even a nominal obligation to give a fuck?
Step One: Find someone born on Krypton......
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
just keep piling more fuel on it until it gets hot enough to melt rock, it melts down to, errr, China, creating a volcano, build geothermal plant to extract power from volcano.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
He'll stomp a mud hole in any nuclear reactors.
I was wondering why they hadn't deployed MechaGodzilla yet. Rodan could show up at any time.
If they don't know how they'll do it, how do they know it'll take 40 years and 15 billion dollars?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
How do you disassemble the Fukushima site? Very carefully...
Is that copy what they did at Chernobyl ?
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
I for one look forward to our radioactive robot overlords.
Seriously, if the Japanese are very good at something, it is finding a reason to build robots. Maybe the fallout will be better robots.
Agreed, they can learn from what they went thru at Chernobyl.
No need to reinvent the wheel except in a case where it can be proven as viable.
I think one thing that might make it cheaper for them would be hybrid concrete called
papercrete.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Too soon for a new wave of Tokyo-eating monsters? ..in the movies, I mean.
It's not faith. It's necessity.
So.... Just so I'm following. You want to build an air-tight container, then burn the rubble with gasoline inside the container... Oxygen? Combustion gas (radioactive combustion gas)? any consideration for these given?
and as to your hole... water table? Fault lines?
Drill a long way down....set off a nuke. It creates a huge cavern with fused walls. Then drill down into the cavern and drain the waste into it.
Well, If I know what I am talking about I would be bidding for a contract instead of posting in slashdot. right?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Note: Need to order that heavy duty spudger to pry the top off.
Have gnu, will travel.
Sala, Dood no!
Don't get me wrong, Rajnikanth is a great actor, hilarious and tough however he just doesn't practice any Martial arts that I can see. Chuck Norris however, 10th degree black belt Chun Kuk Do, 9th degree black belt Tang Soo Do, 8th degree black belt Taekwondo, black belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, black belt Judo. Even if Rajnikanth was a dedicated Kushti practitioner he would not even get past the BJJ so Norris would still kick his ass. You're going to have to come up with another meme for Rajnikanth (he is still a great actor though).
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Under the best of circumstances bots only do what they are programmed to do. I see a big problem with this proposal. Power generation is going to have to be on site. Hydraulic systems leak under stress, electrical systems short out, and people experience fatigue. Combine all of that with radiation damage and disease, $15 billion isn't going to be enough. Beamed energy systems would negate long electric cables while tele-presence would allow for faster emergency response.
I talked about the problem of highly radioactive water spewing from Fukushima back in April 2011:
The radioactivity released at Chernobyl escaped upward into the air. This made it easier to get a handle on the magnitude of the total amount of radioactivity released. The release at the light water reactors at Fukushima is for the most part traveling downward, to basements, tunnels, ground water, and the ocean. This makes it extremely difficult to get a handle on the total amount of radioactivity that has been released. They really don't know [if] the bulk of it is in the thousands of tons they have already discovered or if that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Of course I was called an alarmist and other things for bringing this up back then.
Clearly what they had discovered by April 1 2011 was just the tip of the iceberg. As I had predicted, it is the radioactive water that is the main cause for concern.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
+1
But Slashdotters are rabidly pro-nuclear. It doesn't matter how many fucked up nuclear accidents there were in the past, they seem to think today's humans are magically better and won't make any more mistakes with nuclear power.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Ever heard of ground water?
>> First of all, any wall or barrier can be breached
You are totally right !
And there is another point to it : radioactive waste is releasing various (radioactive, and explosive) gasesover time. You cannot hold these gases forever, so you have to vent them into the athmosphere >> a barrier is not only imposible, but it's also not desirable over the long term.
aaaaaaa
It doesn't matter how many fucked up nuclear accidents there were in the past
There were three similar accidents (at least partial core melt down) to Fukushima in the past 60 years in civilian nuclear power plants. None of those accidents were due to an overwhelming environmental factor damaging the reactors in question. Given the number of reactors out there, that's quite a small number. And I think it does matter how many such accidents there were.
they seem to think today's humans are magically better and won't make any more mistakes with nuclear power.
They don't need to be. Fukushima is not so costly that we need to avoid it at all costs. Further, there's this thing in engineering called "learning from experience".
Install beta ... they'll dismantle themselves due to the shame.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
However for high level radioactive waste you need something that will last for tens to hundreds of thousands of years.
It doesn't need to be perfectly leak-proof. Or last that long. I wonder why there's all this drama over nuclear waste and yet not over normal trash, which contains a lot of stuff with near-infinite half-life like lead or mercury, for example.
But hey, the plants weren't designed to be able to disassemble them ? Really ?
http://www.abqjournal.com/3567...
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Ever heard of ground water?
you can't grind water (except to grind ice to make a slushie)
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Case in point, that's why they're freezing the water around the reactor.
Radioactive slushies is the next big thing.
You know that if they were permitted to sell them, people would buy them and eat them.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.