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I wonder just how strong the radiation has to be for it to seriously affect electronics. I'm not sure the thresholds of radiation exposure that would cause dan
by gnosis 16y ago
I wonder just how strong the radiation has to be for it to seriously affect electronics.
I'm not sure the thresholds of radiation exposure that would cause dangers to the health of humans vs danger to electronics are at all similar.
And, anyway, electronics could be shielded with lead.
This isn't a space mission where every extra fraction of an ounce costs thousands of dollars to deploy. If the radiation at Fukushima really is a serious hazard to the electronics on a robot, then shielding should be a practical option.
- yread 16y agoYes, I don't doubt special robots can and will be developed. But I think the normal ones can't be used since they don't have the shielding and adding it would hamper their function. Also radiation has different ways of damaging people vs electronics. Memory chip gets hit by radiation and immediately returns random values which can cause program to crash. Human doesn't feel much - even Slotin who had a criticality accident and died a few days later, at the moment felt just a metal taste in his mouth. He would still be able to close valves and so on.
- gnosis 16y agoBut the question is whether sensitivity to radiation is really the reason robots aren't being used. The radiation at the plant might not even be strong enough to affect electronics at all. This is all just guesswork. It would be nice to get some solid answers.