One of the world’s largest concrete pumps is driven into the belly of a Russian Antonov AN-24 cargo jet at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday. The pump is one of two being sent to Japan to assist with radiation containment at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The pump comes mounted on a 26-wheel truck. Its extendable boom can reach more than 60 meters, and can be operated up to 3 kms away by remote control, making it possible to shoot water into hard-to-reach places. If necessary, the pump could also entomb a damaged nuclear reactor in concrete. After a 1986 disaster, Putzmeister sent 11 pumps to pour concrete over parts of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
The United States is sending two of the world’s largest pumps to Japan to help cool down dangerously overheated nuclear reactors in the damaged Fukushima power plant.
Typically used for spraying concrete, the tall German-made pumps are being adapted to spray water into the reactors that workers have been struggling to control since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant’s cooling systems.
Made by Putzmeister, the pumps — with arms that reach up to 70 m in the air — have been in use in construction projects in the United States, and are to be shipped from the U.S. to Japan in the world’s largest airplane — the Russian Antonov.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company that operates the Fukushima plant ordered the pumps, which are worth roughly $1.8 million each.
The jet aircraft is being flown from Russia to the United States to pick up the pumps and deliver them to Japan in what Putzmeister marketing services manager, Kelly Blickle, told VOA is a “global effort” to help cool the plant.
Both are remote-controlled machines, allowing workers to remain a safe distance from the reactors, which are leaking radiation. Two technicians from the American company are traveling with the pumps to train their Japanese counterparts in their use. The pumps are expected to arrive in Japan on April 11 and 12.
Workers at the Fukushima plant are currently using a smaller 58-m machine by the same German company, that was in the region when the disaster struck.
Pumps by the same company were used to encase in concrete and seal the reactors of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
Photo by AP
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