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Mar102010

Robot explorer stuck in pipe at nuke plant

Filed under Energy by david brooks at 12:44 pm

I can’t beat the lede on the AP story: ” A small robot looking for the source of a radioactive leak at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is stuck in the mud.”

When it rains, it pours - especially when it rains tritium!

Here’s the story, hosted by the Free-Press.

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3 Responses to “Robot explorer stuck in pipe at nuke plant”

  1. M@ Says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Maybe they're using Exocomps ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quality_of_Lif...) ) and the “small robot” knows the news it found will ultimately lead to its destruction - so it modified it's own programming to avoid capture.

  2. DaveBrooks Says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    The commenter on the previous post who got indignant about my use of the word “geeky” would not, I think, complain if it were applied to you.

  3. John Says:
    March 10th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    They should have used something the size of a radio-controlled monster truck. With mud tires. Didn't they know there would be radioactive mud in that tunnel because of all the leaks over the years and the concrete dust from the crumbling old structure. I am surprised that they put any faith in using robots or cameras to find structural problems or leaks after the cooling tower fiasco. As Mr. John Dreyfuss of Entergy said ” ” We learned alot from this event and we have to overhaul our inspection procedures.” Mr David McElwee, also of Entergy said that the use of a remote camera to inspect the structure of the cooling tower for rot and decay was, ” not as good as putting your hands on the member.”
    But now both of these men are on administrative leave. So is there noone there with enough institutional knowledge to prevent repeating their past mistakes?

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