At the damaged power plant in Fukushima, all efforts are being focussed on cooling the fuel rods to avoid a nuclear fusion. Since Monday, 21March 2011, a Putzmeister pump has been in action on the front line.

The 58 metre concrete pump can also carry water. The pump is driven by the diesel motor of the 5-axle truck it is mounted on. In this way, it can be operated without an external power supply and can transport 160 m3 of water per hour, coming from the sea directly in front of Fukushima.

The invaluable advantage of the pump is that the 58 m manipulator arm can be placed  directly over the target via remote-control. As the arm has 5 articulated joints, the pump can easily overcome obstacles. In order to facilitate this procedure, a camera is installed at the head of the arm. The machine can be approached up to 45 m to the cooling pond. The water reaches the right spot systematically from above and is not being spurted, as has been the case with the fire brigade´s spraying devices used up to now. On the weekend, the first tests were run, and since Monday the pump has been in full use.

Normally, truck-mounted concrete pumps of this size cannot be matriculated in Japan, but in order to cover the distance to the building, this kind of pump is exactly what is needed. The machine had originally been on its way to another customer and was redirected to Japan right after the accident. The financial aspect has to be taken care of by Tepco, the company operating the reactor in Fukushima.

The staff of the Putzmeister service station in Japan are now training Tepco workers how to operate the pump. It is currently being used at a cooling pond of the reactor to cool down the fuel rods. If the application of the 58 m pump is successful, the commissioning of another, 70 m Putzmeister pump is planned. As it would take too long to transport it by ship, the possibility of delivering it as fast as possible by plane is currently being examined.

What happens to the pump afterwards is not clear. At the moment, the most important thing is to get the situation under control. If the pump is too contaminated by radiation, it cannot be used elsewhere. It might be able to be used in Fukushima. Putzmeister pumps were also used when the radioactively contaminated rubble in Tschernobyl had to be covered with concrete in 1986 .

Source:
Nürtinger Zeitung, 22.03.2011
http://www.pmw.de/cps/rde/xchg/pm_online/hs.xsl/9373_DEU_HTML.htm

This type of concrete pump is currently helping to cool down the fuel rods of the nuclear power station of Fukushima