Ninety five ton Putzmeister 70Z flies first class to Japan to help in the nuclear accident response

[Fumesucker]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-buys-giant-concrete-pumps-for-fukushima-2011-04-01







The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has purchased two truck-mounted concrete pumps from U.S. construction firms and is modifying them to pump water to cool the facility's damaged reactors.

If Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. decides to embed the reactors in concrete, as was done with the Chernobyl reactors in 1986, the pumps can be readapted for that task, the pumps’ manufacturer said Friday.

The Putzmeister 70Z pumps are the largest in the world, and there are only three in existence. They have a 230-foot articulating boon that can be controlled remotely from more than a mile away. It weighs 95 tons and has a list price of over $1.5 million.


The Putzmeister 70Z will be used to help cool down damaged Fukushima reactors in Japan.
To get the pumps to Japan, they will be loaded onto the world’s largest jet plane, the Antonov An-225, of which there are only two in existence. Produced in Russia some 20 years ago, the planes have six engines each and a 290-foot wingspan — nearly the length of a football field — and can carry up to 200 tons, according to company that built the monster plane.


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Read more at the link.

[Atman]

1. The article says the pumps will have to be scrapped due to the radiation exposure.

Kinda buried in the story, it underscores how bad things are over there. Only 3 of these things exist in the whole world and they're just going to be thrown away. Yikes.

[okieinpain]

3. question is why are they just now getting them there. and how

long will it take to build more of them. this isn't just a japan problem it's global.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Global? Please explain.

[Atman]

15. This won't be the last one.

That's what is "global" about it. We are essentially disposing of two of only three machines on the entire planet capable of doing this work. What if there is an earthquake in San Francisco next month? How will we get a giant cement pump in if they're all entombed in their own concrete in Japan. This is scary shit. The stuff no one REALLY imagined, unlike the NO levies that everyone imagined but no one cared about.

[okieinpain]

17. that crap is leaking into the ocean and the air. it's going to be

everyone's problem if it goes on too long.

[iwishiwas]

2. Like BP in the GULF-Japan tried to save the reactor for weeks before

they finally said--bury it (in the Gulf it was to cap it). Private companies in charge in both cases.

[3waygeek]

5. Ninety-five ton Putzmeister?

With a headline like that, I'd expect a story about Rush Limbaugh. :evilgrin:

[undeterred]

6. That's exactly what I was thinking- and he would demand to fly first class.

[Fumesucker]

7. Half the reason I posted the story was the opportunity to write that headline..

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[petronius]

10. Sure, but then you got to the word "help" and realized the subject had to be something else...

:)

[jberryhill]

11. You win the thread!

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. lol. Terrible name for an awesome machine

[MineralMan]

8. Interesting name for a piece of equipment with a long

nozzle. Hmm...

[PCIntern]

9. Apple makes a Putzmeister app

so you can control it from anywhere on the planet...

Sort of like that car commercial except instead of checking to see if there's enough air in the tires for your daughter to drive while you're in Europe closing a business deal, you can pump concrete onto any radiation-emitting structure at record speed while you're clying to Rio to fet laid and escape the authorities.

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. Cheaper than a missile. I'd say go for it. Go putzmeister, go!

[iemitsu]

13. i hope these monsters work.

whatever sacrifice needs to be made to save the world from this disaster need to be made.
including closing all the remaining nuclear plants and scraping plans to build more.
it is beyond me how anyone can continue to be an apologist for the nuclear industry. what right do they have to insist that we all take the risk associated with generating power in this fashion?
any income generated from these nukes needs to be redirected to storing the poison that they have created. and any ceo who has skimmed millions from these ill-conceived power plants needs to give the money back to help us recuperate from this disaster.

[Bound by Honor]

14. Cool. An Antonov AN-225 (Mriya)

That thing can take a locomotive and fly 5,000 miles.

It's considered the world's largest cargo aircraft.