- A company has demonstrated a remote-operated robot designed to retrieve melted fuel debris at Japan’s ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
- The plan includes deploying telescoping pipe robots inside the reactor to begin removing debris by October.
- About 880 tonnes of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel remains in the three damaged reactors.
Operators of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Tuesday demonstrated for the first time since the 2011 meltdown how remote-operated robots will retrieve small pieces of molten fuel debris from one of the plant’s three damaged reactors later this year.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings plans to deploy a telescoping pipe robot to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 2 reactor by October to test removing debris from the reactor containment vessel.
The work is more than two years behind schedule. The removal of the melted fuel was due to begin in late 2021, but the continuing delays highlight the difficulty of recovering from the 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
Drones aim to survey Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors for the first time
In a demonstration at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Kobe, where the robot was developed, a device equipped with tongs slowly descended from an extendable pipe to a pile of gravel and picked up pieces.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), operator of Japan’s devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, unveiled a robot it will use to remove debris at the nuclear plant in Kobe, western Japan, on May 28, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)
TEPCO plans to remove debris smaller than one ounce from tests at the Fukushima plant.
Yusuke Nakagawa, fuel debris retrieval group manager at TEPCO, said, “We believe that the test removal of fuel debris from Unit 2 is an extremely important step in steadily progressing with future decommissioning work. It is important that the test removal proceeds safely and steadily.”
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About 880 tonnes of radioactive molten nuclear fuel remain in the three damaged reactors. Critics say the 30-40 year cleanup target set by the government and TEPCO for Fukushima Daiichi is too optimistic. Each reactor is damaged differently and each needs a plan tailored to its situation.
A better understanding of the molten fuel debris inside the reactors is key to decommissioning them, and earlier this year TEPCO sent four small drones inside the primary containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor to take images of areas robots could not reach.
