ROBOT CAPITOL OF THE WORLD..JAPAN..WILL NOT USE ROBOTS AT NUKE PLANTS

By Jon Herskovitz – Thu Mar 17, 7:23 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan may build robots to play the violin, run marathons and preside over weddings, but it has not deployed any of the machines to help repair its crippled reactors.

While robots are commonplace in the nuclear power industry, with EU engineers building one that can climb walls through radioactive fields, the electric power company running Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has not deployed any for the nuclear emergency.

Instead, its skeleton team has been given the unenviable and perhaps deadly task of cooling reactors and spent nuclear fuel on their own, only taking breaks to avoid over-exposure.

A science ministry official said a robot used to detect radiation levels is at the site of the accident in Fukushima, north of Tokyo, but nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said: "We have no reports of any robots being used."

That robot would have come in handy early on Thursday when workers monitoring radiation had to back away from the plant because it was becoming too hot.

[Related: What is radioactive iodine poisoning?]

While Japan is renowned for its cutting edge technology, it also maintains an anachronistic element in its society that relies on humans for tasks that have given way to automation in many other parts of the world, such as operating elevators and warning motorists of road construction.

In one of Japan's worst nuclear accidents, two workers were killed in September 1999, when workers at a nuclear facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction by using buckets to mix nuclear fuel in a lab.

Japan is a world leader in robots, using them to automate the most complicated manufacturing processes and to sift through rubble to look for victims in earthquakes.

Robots were also used after two infamous nuclear disasters -- Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and will almost certainly be used at Fukushima for work in highly radioactive areas.

Kim Seungho, a nuclear official who engineered robots for South Korea's atomic power plants, said: "You have to design emergency robots for plants when they are being built so they can navigate corridors, steps and close valves."

[Related: What is acute radiation syndrome?]

The Fukushima plant was built in the 1970s, well before robots were able to work on sophisticated tasks.

Robots are in place in many nuclear plants for structured situations such as monitoring pipes and simple maintenance.

Kim, a deputy director in nuclear technology for the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, said budget constraints and denial have kept emergency robots out of many plants in his country and around the world.

"Nuclear plant operators don't liked to think about serious situations that are beyond human control," he said by telephone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110317/sc_nm/us_quake_japan_robots

Views: 53

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Doc Vega posted a blog post

The State of Being

The State of Being Who really cares?Are you really there?When life’s too much to bareWith all the…See More
3 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
yesterday
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's video
Sunday
cheeki kea posted a video

Ivermectin and Cancers

Ivermectin, a potential anticancer drug derived from an antiparasitic drug https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7505114/Mechanisms of actionIVM induc...
Sunday
cheeki kea commented on tjdavis's blog post Call For Israel To Join Five Eyes
Sunday
tjdavis posted a video

David Gilmour with Romany Gilmour - Between Two Points (Later... with Jools Holland)

David Gilmour with Romany Gilmour perform Between Two Points on Later... with Jools Holland. Watch more Later... with Jools Holland on BBC iPlayer: bbc.co.uk...
Sunday
Sandy posted a video
Sunday
tjdavis commented on tjdavis's blog post Call For Israel To Join Five Eyes
Sunday
tjdavis posted a blog post
Sunday
Doc Vega posted a blog post
Friday
Less Prone commented on Less Prone's photo
Thumbnail

NATO KB FINLAND

"Finland is being pushed into a totally unnecessary war. Russia hasn't been a thread to us for…"
Friday
tjdavis favorited Doc Vega's blog post A Parallel Society May be the only Plausible Solution to the Division in the US
Friday
tjdavis posted a video
Friday
MAC posted a video

THIS IS WHY WE NEED PAPER BALLOTS!

THE MANIPULATION OF ELECTIONS: Veteran U.S. Air Force CIA Officer has evidence that can prove the source code operating the election machines in Smartmatic a...
Thursday
Less Prone favorited Doc Vega's blog post A Parallel Society May be the only Plausible Solution to the Division in the US
Thursday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Thursday
Doc Vega commented on Less Prone's photo
Thumbnail

NATO KB FINLAND

"Got to hand it to the Finnish they are tough as hell and they don't put up with Russian…"
Thursday
tjdavis posted photos
Thursday
Doc Vega commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

Both True.

"China has been up to no good for a long time and they do plan ultimately to not only be  world…"
Wednesday
tjdavis posted a video

We March

Provided to YouTube by Legacy RecordingsWe March · PrinceThe Gold Experience℗ 1995 NPG Records, Inc. Manufactured and Distributed by Legacy RecordingsRelease...
Oct 30

© 2024   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted