Japan pix of nuke fallout
AN UNDERWATER robot captured photos of 3-foot thick lumps of melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a Japanese nuclear reactor wrecked by a 2011 earthquake.
The solid lava-like rocks and hard, layered clumps were inside a structure beneath the nuclear core of the Unit 3 reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
The remote-controlled robot wrapped up its three-day probe of the site on Saturday, marking an important step in the decommissioning of the site, said the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The process is expected to take decades after Fukushima was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami.
The location and removal of the melted fuel is key to cleaning up the site, and the success in Unit 3 was one of the first steps in the process.
But power company spokesman Takahiro Kimoto said the utility needed time to analyze the debris and figure out the best way to get it out.
The massive, solid fuel deposits are submerged beneath the highly radioactive water where the robot dubbed “Little Sunfish” went to work this weekend.
The fuel found in Unit 3 was on the bottom of a structure dubbed “the pedestal,” located beneath the core and inside its primary containment vessel.
Previous efforts to examine the plant’s two other ruined reactors were stymied by extremely high radiation levels and massive structural damage.
The twin cameras affixed to the robot first spied what investigators believed was melted fuel debris on Friday, with a second day search turning up more details about the chunky deposits on the floor.
The images collected also chronicled the heavy damage inflicted by the core meltdown, with fuel debris mixed in with broken reactor parts.
The robot, roughly the size of a loaf of bread, gave investigators a long-awaited look at the inside of the dormant nuclear plant.
A four-member team controlled its operation, using its five propellers to move the robot around.