Radiation Robot Makes Troops Safer 134
Darkman, Walkin Dude wrote to mention a plucky little radiation-proof robot working to make life easier for folks in the military. From the article: "By this time an hour and a half had gone by, and the team was temporarily out of ideas. Phil had estimated that the robot could remain ambulatory in the radiation field for only 50 minutes, and in fact the robot's lower portion was no longer responding to commands. The RAP team, as a precaution against this very circumstance, working with White Sands personnel had tied a rope to M2 before sending it into the work area. The rope, attached to a RAP team winch 100 feet outside the structure, ensured the robot could be hauled out if radiation damaged its drive unit. But radiation shields now blocked a direct haul. M2 was hemmed in. Using a ten-foot-long pole and standing at the edge of the field (which fanned out like a flashlight beam, strongest at its center and weakest at its edges), team members hooked and then tugged at the rope hauling M2. The deflection of the rope's pull slid the robot around a moveable radiation shield without knocking it over. The RAP team's winch then pulled the robot directly out. "
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'ma call shenanigans on this one. And "making life easier for folks in the military?!" In ONE instance, this helped what happened to be a Military research plant. But the poster makes it seem like this'll win the war in Iraq. Seriously, this is a HORRIBLE scew to put on the article.
Rant aside, I think this is very interesting problem solving. Especially the 10-foot poll bit. Just goes to show that technology can't win everything. Not by a long shot. Interesting problem, interesting solution, both very complicated.
emphatic re-iteration (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to ask...when did restaurants start serving salt that's only somewhat less deadly than cobalt-60?
Re:Uhmm... (Score:1, Insightful)
No, I'm not kidding.
Yes you are, or you're an idiot. Explain to me a process by which gamma rays can activate an object. Hint: consider a gamma splitting deuterium to release a neutron which then goes on to activate other metals. Now tell me the energy of the gamma and which radioactive materials release gamma rays at that energy. Now add in the probability of activation (it is not a highly probable reaction) and the scarcity of deuterium (0.015% of hydrogen). Now describe the mean free path of the neutron (obviously there must have been a lot of water or highly hydrogen rich materials there for it to come from deuterium) and explain how the 'radiation' spreads.
If you can do this and still keep a straight face, you are a f***ing idiot. Otherwise you were kidding.
Re:Nuclear Power (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps this event will help set a new model for operational safety. I can't believe how stupid those operators were. It never occurred to them to send out a fucking maintanence tech to inspect the mechanism and figure out why it was sticking?
I seriously doubt that the manual (it's the DoD, you know they have a manual for this) included "up the PSI" as a way to resolve the issue.
I don't think anyone should be fired over this, but i expect them to review all their procedures for problem solving with respect to their radioactive materials.
/Rant
As for nucleur power plants, I think it'd be best not to increase the use of remote robots. The more human inspection is required, the more shielding they have to use, which imho is a good thing.
morons ... (Score:1, Insightful)
it's super dangerous!
"Unfortunately, heat from the radiation source melted the plastic. "
i wouldn't want to be alive after a nuclear world war, and i'm pretty
sure you wouldn't want to be either, so screw you and your
radiation proof circuits
but then again
around with this stuff in the first place
space-time displacment fields anyone?