The robot equipped with pincers and utilizing a telescopic tube will collect radioactive fuel debris weighing less than 3 grams.
Robot used to remove molten fuel debris at Fukushima. (Photo: Kyodo News).
On May 28, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant announced plans to utilize remote-controlled robots to collect molten fuel debris from one of the three damaged reactors by the end of this year, marking the first attempt since the disaster in 2011, according to Yahoo. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will deploy an expandable tube robot at Reactor No. 2 of the plant to test the relocation of debris from the primary containment vessel in October. This operation is delayed by more than two years from the original schedule. The relocation of molten fuel was initially set to begin in late 2021 but has faced multiple delays, highlighting the challenges of the recovery effort following the powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
During a demonstration at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Kobe, western Japan, where the robot was developed, the pincer-equipped device slowly descended from the telescopic tube into a gravel mass and picked up a small particle. TEPCO plans to collect debris smaller than 3 grams in the test at the Fukushima plant.
“We believe that this test to remove debris from Reactor No. 2 is an extremely important step toward future decommissioning efforts,” shared Yusuke Nakagawa, the program manager for fuel debris collection at TEPCO. “It is crucial to conduct the tests safely and stably.”
Approximately 880 tons of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel remains inside the three damaged reactors. Experts consider the Japanese government’s and TEPCO’s goal of completing the cleanup within 30 to 40 years to be overly optimistic. The damage varies among each reactor, and plans must be tailored to their conditions. A thorough understanding of the molten fuel debris inside the reactors is key to decommissioning. TEPCO has deployed four small drones into the containment vessel of Reactor No. 1 earlier this year to capture images of areas inaccessible to the robot.
