/ News
This swimming robot may have finally spotted melted nuclear fuel inside Fukushima
A robot swimming in the depths of one of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors may have spotted lumps of molten nuclear fuel inside. If it did, it would be the first robot to successfully locatethe radioactive material, as efforts to clean up after the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan continue.
This latest robotic investigator, nicknamed the Little Sunfish, was sent into the Unit 3 reactor for the first time on July 19th. That’s one of the three nuclear reactors that melted down after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011. Based on earlier surveys, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company or TEPCO, suspects that the melted fuel in Unit 3might have burned through the bottom of its container and dropped into what’s called the primary containment vessel. That’s what shields the outside world from the radioactive materials inside.
Powered by five propellers and sporting a camera on its front and back ends, the football-sized robot was remotely operated via a tether attached to its rear. On its first trip, the Little Sunfish successfully navigated underwater. And on its second visit a few days later, the Little Sunfish snapped photos of what look like hardened lumps of lava that may contain melted nuclear fuel. Experts will need to analyze the photos to be sure, but a TEPCO spokesperson told the Japan Times, "There is a high possibility that the solidified objects are mixtures of melted metal and fuel that fell from the vessel.”
Finding this massive source of radiation is among the first challenges TEPCO will need to overcome in order to decommission the plant. Nuclear power plants are fueled by pellets of uranium, packed together inside hollow metal rods “like peas in a pod,” according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. These fuel rods are part of the nuclear reactor’s core, which keeps producing heat even after the reactor shuts down. That’s why it’s so important to keep nuclear reactors cool: if temperatures climb too high, the reactor core can melt into a kind of radioactive lava.
When the tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi plant after the 2011 earthquake, it took out the backup power generators and cooling systems. Over the next three days, the reactors melted down — and since then, the plant operator has been hunting for the molten messes of metal and radioactive fuel left behind.
So far, at least seven of the robots sent to investigate the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi have broken down during their missions. One robot’s camera was fried by high levels of radiation, another got caught on debris and abandoned. The Little Sunfish successfully made the trip not once, but twice into Unit 3. Attempts to remove the melted radioactive fuel probably won’t even start until after 2020, the Associated Press reports — but this small win could be a sign that robots might be able to help the cleanup efforts, after all.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/26/16030222/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-robot-radioactive-fuel-tepco-little-sunfish
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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