At Japan’s Fukushima, a high-stakes recovery of deadly radioactive debris resumes

The mission is part of a decades-long effort to decommission Fukushima, where an estimated 880 tonnes of fatally radioactive fuel remain

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Radioactive debris removal resumes at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant

Associated Press

Published: 3:22pm, 10 Sep 2024Updated: 4:29pm, 10 Sep 2024

In Japan on Tuesday, an extendable robot resumed its mission to retrieve a fragment of melted fuel debris from one of three damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, nearly three weeks after an earlier attempt was suspended due to a technical issue.

The collection of a tiny sample of the spent fuel debris from inside of the Unit 2 reactor marks the start of the most challenging part of the decadeslong decommissioning of the plant where three reactors were destroyed in the March 11, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The sample-return mission, initially scheduled to begin on August 22, was suspended when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-metre (5-foot) add-on pipes to push in and manoeuvre the robot were in the wrong order and could not be corrected within the time limit for their radiation exposure, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) said.

The pipes were to be used to push the robot inside and pull it back out when it finished. Once inside the vessel, the robot is operated remotely from a safer location.

The robot, nicknamed “telesco”, can extend up to about 22 metres (72 feet), including the pipes pushing it from behind, to reach its target area to collect a fragment from the surface of the melted fuel mound using a device equipped with tongs that hang from the of the robot.

Tepco workers rearrange pipes for the recovery mission at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Photo: Tepco via AP

The mission to obtain the fragment and return with it is to last about two weeks.