Thursday, April 21, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Packbots in Action

If you want them for posterity, you can download the files (if you don't mind downloading 14 zip files for the Reactor 1 and 8 zip files for the Reactor 3) at TEPCO. The two iRobot's Packbots entered the Reactor 1 and Reactor 3 buildings on April 17. TEPCO decided not to show the fogged up image of the Reactor 2, though.

To download, here's the TEPCO link:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/110311/

Alternatively, I've found that Mainichi Shinbun allows video embeds (that's very rare among major national newspapers; it deserves a special mention here), so here they are:





If you want to embed these on your site, go to the Mainichi's vid site here:

For the 1st vid: http://video.mainichi.co.jp/viewvideo.jspx?Movie=48227968/48227968peevee384424.flv
2nd vid: http://video.mainichi.co.jp/viewvideo.jspx?Movie=48227968/48227968peevee384436.flv
3rd vid: http://video.mainichi.co.jp/viewvideo.jspx?Movie=48227968/48227968peevee384454.flv

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And meanwhile more outside observers are pointing out TEPCO's math isn't adding up. The constant production of I-131 points to ongoing criticalities.

http://www.glgroup.com/News/After-5-Halflives-I-131-Higher-than-Cs-134-137-Suggests-Ongoing-Criticalities-53599.html

This dove tails with observation that breast milk in some women is showing I-131 levels well in excess of what would be expected according to official numbers.

Anonymous said...

Hey look. It's amateur hour at Fukushima. There are specialized robots for this kind of task. I can't believe some of the stuff they are using (a counter taped to a robot's arm, with another robot to give readings? really? is this a high-school Science Faire?).

You don't need recriticality for more iodine to be found in the air and water. It's quite possible that some of the iodine that has been deposited on the insides of reactors is now re-mobilized with cooling water.

Changes in the water's pH can also be responsible for new releases.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

High school science students might be able to come up with better robots.. I had expected at least the direct video footage from the bot, but a TEPCO employee had to record the laptop PC screen. Doesn't the Packbot have recording capabilities? Or do they still use Intel 8080 or something?

About iodine-131, isn't this thing volatile? Or does it still settle inside the RPV?

Anonymous said...

@Anon

Actually there isn't any better radiation detecting robots commercially available. There is lots of talk about making them post-Fukushima but few of them are available and most of them look like iPacbots.

http://www.dunyanews.tv/index.php?key=Q2F0SUQ9NyNOaWQ9MjMxODM=

The I-131 levels should have dropped a lot by now it has had almost 5 1/2-L to decay. The isotopes ratios released by TEPCO don't make sense.

http://www.glgroup.com/News/After-5-Halflives-I-131-Higher-than-Cs-134-137-Suggests-Ongoing-Criticalities-53599.html

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