Pipe device used to examine Fukushima

A long telescopic pipe has been unveiled in a bid to gather crucial information about the situation inside the reactor chambers at Japan’s tsunamiwrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

Toshiba Corporation’s energy systems unit has produced the 13m long pipe, which carries a pan-tilt camera.

The device is designed to give officials a deeper view into the nuclear plant’ s unit two primary containment vessel, where details on melted fuel damage remain largely unknown.

The Fukushima plant had triple meltdowns following the 2011 quake and tsunami.

Finding details about the fuel debris is crucial to determining the right method and technology for its removal at each reactor – the most challenging process during the plant’s decades-long decommissioning.

Toshiba officials said the new device will be sent inside the pedestal, a structure directly below the core, to investigate the area and hopefully to find melted debris. The mission could take place as soon as late next month.

The device looks like a giant fishing rod about 12cm in diameter, with a thermometer that slowly slides down.