Skip to main content

When Only a Putzmeister Will Do...

The other day, we mentioned that two pumps were being sent form the United States to Japan to help with the water spraying effort at Fukushima to keep the reactors and fuel pools cooled. The giant pumps are manufactured by Putzmeister in Germany, which most stories I've read on this have mentioned. 
It occurred to me that Putzmeister might be a little interested in this unexpected publicity - all this seemed to have happened without the company's direct participation - and indeed it has.
Since Tuesday, 22.3.2011, a 58-metre Putzmeister large-boom pump has been pumping water for cooling at the atomic power plant in Fukushima.
A few days ago, the Japanese operator decided to use another four Putzmeister machines at the damaged reactor blocks in Fukushima: Two 62-meter-high machines with 6 arms (M 62-6) and two 70-meter-high machines (M 70-5). All the machines are from Germany. The two 70-meter pumps are to be taken from construction sites in the USA. The first machine will probably be flown from Stuttgart to Japan on 31.03 in an Antonov wide-bodied aircraft, and the other machines will be flown in during the following days. Initially, they will probably pump water; later they will be used for any necessary concreting work.
So, a little national pride, but otherwise pretty exacting in sticking to details. It also sounds like Putzmeister is helping out. Given the circumstances, you can't blame the company for letting you know exactly how their machines are useful.

The two large-boom pumps are characterized by their enormous vertical reach of almost 62 or 70 metres, as well as their particularly flexible boom kinematics. This means the uppermost arm of the booms can reach over the edge of the reactor buildings and into the buildings from above, and thus discharge the water where it is needed.
Thanks to its 6 arms, the M 62-6, for example, is considerably more flexible than a comparable 5-arm boom with a similar range. The M 70-5 truck-mounted concrete pump is the largest series-produced truck-mounted concrete pump in the world. It is mounted on a semitrailer pulled by a 500 HP tractor unit. In order to ensure even distribution of the weight of 80 tonnes, the vehicle has 10 axles over a total length of 21.4 metres.
However, you slice it, these are highly specialized machines. I suspect anyone who needs one of these knows about Putzmeister. Still, the company had wide latitude to get crass about its involvement - and it didn't - at all.

Good for Putzmeister.
Thanks to its large reach and flexible boom, the M 62-6 is ideally suited to use on high buildings, for example the damaged reactor buildings in Fukushima. These are the two being sent from Germany.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should