K-MAX unmanned helicopter sets payload record (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
(Other pictures at this site)
Posted on 04/16/2011 3:18:25 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. offers unmanned chopper to help remove Fukushima spent fuel
TOKYO, April 17, Kyodo
The U.S. government has told Japan that it can use a U.S. unmanned cargo transport helicopter to set up cranes to remove spent fuel rods from storage pools at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japanese and U.S. sources close to the matter said Saturday.
The K-MAX helicopter, developed jointly by Lockheed Martin Corp. and KAMAN Aerospace Group of the United States, is being considered to set up the huge cranes.
The proposal has been communicated to the unified command headquarters set up by the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. to deal with the nuclear crisis. Japan has not yet made a formal response to the proposal.
Since the ground positioning system-equipped chopper can be operated remotely, it would enable emergency workers to implement restoration work even in areas contaminated by high levels of radiation, they said.
TEPCO has been cooling down the spent fuel storage pools on the fifth floor of the reactor buildings by pumping water using a truck-mounted concrete pump.
Spent nuclear fuel is usually transported away from nuclear plants inside steel casks after being cooled in storage pools for a few years.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.kyodonews.jp ...
P!
Why doesn’t the messianic one just fly over the reactor and use his superpowers to cool the rods, remove them and then hurl them into space where they won’t do anyone any harm?
I thought it was only the TRUTH that was his kryptonite......gamma radiation is just a walk in the park for the Super O.
I’ve thought cable-controlled blimps might be useful for observation and material moving.
That’s a small but SUPER powerful helicopter —it’s rotors have a novel intermeshing system. The yaw is also controlled via trailing edge tabs on the rotors.
It’s a pitbull, that thing.
Also affordable.
AWESOME! I want one!!!!
I can just imagine a fleet of these resupplying the troops. Incredible prop design for stability. Sounds like just what they need in Japan.
It will be the last flight for this one.
It will be buried in the special landfill when they’re finished with it.
K-MAX unmanned helicopter sets payload record (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
(Other pictures at this site)
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