use the robots!

[kittenscribble]

I woke this morning to the news that the attempt to use helicopters to dump seawater on the reactors was called off, because the radiation above the plants was just too strong.

I respect their pulling back the pilots in those cases, but it made me wonder: why can't we use robots? We have UAVs that can fly over mountains in the Middle East and target insurgents. Can't we arm a UAV with a water cannon, or even just a bucket on a string, and fly it right over the reactor without irradiating a single human being?

Am I missing something? Why are we not doing this? I mean, if anyone can design a robot to do this sort of thing, I would think it would be the Japanese.

Comments

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

(nods nods) Per Wikipedia, the most advanced UAV in wide deployment -- the USAF's Global Hawk UAV, the same one they're using to try to get pictures of the Fukushima plant -- has a max payload of about 3 tons. A Chinook, in contrast, has a 20+ ton payload.

In addition, to be most effective, you would need to hover over the target and drop the water, and the Global Hawks fly, not hover. They can deliver missiles and bombs with pinpoint accuracy, but only because those missiles and bombs can steer themselves to the target, which doesn't help much with delivering water.

Really not a whole lot of options there in Fukushima, unfortunately.