Sources: Putzmeister America Inc., Sturtevant, Wis.; CP staff
Putzmeister America has arranged transfer of a pair of its largest truck-mounted concrete boom models to pump water to cooling tanks at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, whose reactors were damaged by a tsunami following last month’s massive earthquake. The 70m pumps are scheduled for April 9-10 delivery from Atlanta and Los Angeles to ultimate owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., via the world’s largest aircraft—Russian Antonov AN-225 Mriya Super Heavy Transport planes.
Putzmeister GmbH has thus far provided Tokyo Electric 62m and 58m models from Germany, with a second of the smaller size scheduled to ship later this month. The plant operator deploys the concrete equipment to convey water to precise cooling tank points from a distance. A pump cell common to larger Putzmeister truck-mounted booms has a 42,267-gallon/hour capacity for water. The manufacturer supplied 11 boom and stationary pumps for similar emergency duty in 1986 at Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear plant.