Robot retrieves 1st melted fuel from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor
Around 800 tonnes of fatally radioactive molten fuel remains in the plants, and the mission is a step in a long-term clean-up operation
A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, said on Saturday that the extendable fishing rod-like robot successfully clipped a gravel as big as 5mm (0.2 inches), the size of a tiny granola bit, from the top surface of a mound of molten fuel debris that sits on the bottom of the No 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.
The “telesco” robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the melted fuel bit, returned to the enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel earlier on Saturday.
The sample return marks the first time the melted fuel is retrieved out of the containment vessel. But the mission is not over until it is certain that the sample’s radioactivity is below a set standard and safely placed into a container.
If the radioactivity exceeds the limit, the robot must go back inside the reactor to find another piece. Tepco officials said they expect the piece is small enough to meet the requirement.
The mission initially started in August for what was supposed to be a two-week round trip but had been suspended twice due to mishaps.
