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Monday, March 21, 2011
Concrete Pumping Robot at Fukushima
More than 100 Japanese firefighters and a dozen firefighting trucks including the “Super Pumper,” are working to cool down the damaged Fukushima Dai-1 nuclear reactors. But the situation at the nuclear power plant remains very serious and new strategies are considered to stop nuclear fire and radiation. According to a CNN report first tests are now planned to pump concrete into the plant's No. 4 reactor spent nuclear fuel pool and containment vessel. This means high performance concrete pumps, a sophisticated delivery line system, non-ballasted stationary booms and demanding concrete mixtures. Putzmeister, the German manufacturer of concrete pumps, and the largest in its field, is now at Fukushima to help. The company has experience from the Chernobyl disaster and is the world record holder pumping concrete to a height of more than 700 m at Burj Khalifa Tower, currently the tallest man-made structure ever built.
Concrete Spraying Robots at Chernobyl
Credit: Putzmeister - Chernobyl 1986
In 1986 more than 10 pumps of four different manufacturer were used to encapsulate the damage reactor at Chernobyl as fast as possible. In total, approx. 76.450 cubic meter (100.000 cubic yards) were pumped to protect the damaged reactor block 4. The longest booms and fastest pumps were from Putzmeister, reacting faster with special equipment like lead shields, radio and video remote controll etc. At Chernobyl only two hours' exposure was allowed per worker. Each worker had a radiation counter in his pocket and could leave whenever he felt endangered. A rest-camp over 120 km away was set up for the operators to ensure day and night operation. About 100 trained operators were working at the site day and night.
Credit: Putzmeister M52
The Putzmeister M52 had a 150 cubic meter per hour capacity, 360 HP engine and lead lined cab. The compact five section Multi-Z-boom was fully autiomatic, centraly lubricated, all radio and video controlled, including S-type harsh mix hopper to match most difficult concrete mixes.