The idea that a nuclear tragedy could actually drive conception is definitely a new way of life to look at Japan ’s ongoing Fukushima debacle . But a fresh report from the APdoes just that , paint a picture that the farsighted - term cleanup spot feat that Japan now face will make it a domain loss leader in decommissioning nuclear plant .
This Tuesday will be the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami , and the AP takes the opportunity to look at the long , draw - out catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai - ichi nuclear business leader flora . The physical process of decommission the plant will take decade , at least — and it will ask the expertness of multiple generations of scientists and engineers . To oversee the 40 - yr project , Tokyo Electric Power Co. has set up a put up - alone company named the Decommissioning Company ( the UK has a similar consistency , formed in 2005 ) , and Japan has created an organization called the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning .
Both organizations are attracting pastime from academics and scientist abroad , according to the AP , including “ 780 proposals for funding from around the world for mind and technologies related to the discussion and direction of polluted piss , as well as 220 others about find the three mellow effect . ”
Why are scientists afield so interested in Fukushima ? Because , finally , all nuclear tycoon industrial plant need to be decommission . And when the time comes , the technology being develop under the atmospheric pressure of Fukushima ’s mark off meter bomb could end up benefiting other plants going through a more conventional physical process .
Right now , for instance , workers are focused on emptying the depot puddle at the No . 4 reactor , where chiliad of spend fuel assemblies are stored . Normally , this life-threatening piece of work is done by humans — but at Fukushima , scientist are work with robotic arms that can more safely persuade the spent rod . Companies likeHondaandHitachihave both develop robot to aid in the cleanup . That ’s exactly the kind of technology that Japan could eventually export to aging atomic plants all over the world in a decade or too .
Hitachi ’s ASTACO - SoRa robot and Honda ’s High Access Survey Robot , both developed for body of work at Fukushima .
The Japan Times has another take on the same reputation , suggest that it ’s a “ cash cow ” for Japan — but , in the end , this will end up being one of the most costly nuclear cataclysm ever . But that does n’t mean there wo n’t be technical benefits in the farseeing term . We ’ve seen the same event after other major disasters — fromDeepwater Horizonto the 2011 Tsunami itself , which has already inspireda host of other excogitation .
It ’s far from a silver facing , but it ’s still an interesting emergence of one of the most terrible disaster in modernistic memory .
pic by Tokyo Electric Power Co via Getty Images
FukushimaJapanNuclear powerRobotics
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