"Contained?"
Robot Dies 3 Hours After Entering Fukushima Reactor
12
April, 2015
We
are sure this is nothing to worry about... and Japanese officials
will re-iterate that everything is on track but when a
snake-like robot sent to inspect a reactor containment vessel at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant dies three hours into the
operation,
one might wonder just how "contained" the radiation
situations really is.
The crippled reactors are inaccessible to humans because of deadly levels of radiation, so using the two-foot-long robot was the first chance officials were able to examine the damage caused by highly radioactive nuclear-fuel debris.
The robot has been developed by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy to investigate hard-to-access areas of the plant. It consists of three segments: the robot's main body and two compact crawlers. The robot can assume a long, straight shape for passing through narrow spaces, such as pipes. Alternatively, it can rotate its crawlers by 90 degrees in relation to its central body to assume a U-shape, with the crawlers providing better stability when travelling over flat surfaces.
The robot is 9cm in height. Depending on the position of its crawlers, it is 25cm to 64cm in length and between 6.5cm and 27cm in width. Weighing 7.5kg, the robot is operated via a 40m cable.
"We believe this will lead us to figuring out how to decommission the reactor," Ryo Shimizu, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told NBC News.
With
the core still 'missing',
Sputnik News reports that,
The robot sent to inspect a reactor' containment vessel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant stopped responding three hours into the operation.
TEPCO hoped to take a look inside the vessel containing one of the three reactors, which underwent a meltdown in the 2011 nuclear disaster.
A group of approximately 40 workers sent the remotely-controlled device, allegedly capable of withstanding high levels of radiation, into the vessel at 11:20 a.m. The robot stopped functioning after covering two thirds of the route at approximately 2:10 p.m., according to the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The company did not say whether it would send another robot into the vessel on Monday, as previously planned. TEPCO's ultimate goal is to use the robot to inspect the melted fuel inside the vessel.
*
* *
CNN:
“Strange green glow” seen inside Fukushima reactor
- “Yellow, blue-green and other colors could be seen”
- Radiation dose hits record high near 50 sieverts per hour 15 seconds of video removed just before levels spiked 1,000% (VIDEO)
20
April, 2015
Wall
St Journal,
Apr 20, 2015 (emphasis added): Tepco
to Abandon Second Robot Inside Fukushima Reactor…
it has decided not to try to retrieve a second robot…
citing radiation
damage…
[It] has now joined a previous robot which the utility also decided
to leave there earlier this month… Tepco said one of the cameras
used to monitor the second robot was damaged by the radiation.
They decided to leave it inside to avoid the risk of it becoming
stuck in a passageway…
NHK,
Apr 20, 2015: The [first] robot was sent inside the vessel on April
10th but stopped working after advancing just 10 meters… TEPCO sent
a second robot to retrieve the first robot. But the probe’s
camera malfunctioned
due to radiation exposure.
The utility decided
to abandon both robot probes.
Compare
today’s media reports with Tepco’s
most recent ‘prompt report’ on the second robot’s mission:
“Radiation,
Temperature Found Lower than Expected —
Results so far indicate that the radiation dose was about 4.7 to
9.7Sv/h, less than a tenth of what was expected. That means the
second robot
can stay inside for about two to three days, rather than about 10
hours as
originally planned.”
Jiji
Press,
Apr 20, 2015: [Tepco] said Monday it has given up attempts to
recover a second shape-shifting robot… The electronics of the
camera were apparently damaged by the high radiation in the PCV, the
utility said. When powered up, the camera is designed
to work for 10 hours in
the intense radiation, but
Tepco was unable to switch it on Saturday.
Also
note the figures Tepco reported for the radiation dose (4.7 to 9.4
Sv/h). The company’s latest
video shows
the radiation dose spike to 48.2
Sv/h,
by far the highest
ever reported inside
the Unit 1 containment vessel. Unfortunately, 16 seconds of the video
was removed just as levels spiked from 3.7 Sv/h to 44.4 Sv/h.
CNN,
Apr 20, 2015: Second robot
captures glow inside
stricken Fukushima plant —
A second robotic probe… has captured
images of a strange green glow.
Asahi
Shimbun,
Apr 19, 2015: Rust
or peeling paint on a steel floor was visible in
video footage taken by the second robot probe sent into one of the
reactors.
Yomiuri
Shimbun,
Apr 18, 2015: Yellow,
blue-green and other colors could
be seen on the floor. “We
have not been able to specify whether
the colors were the effects of the robot’s lights or paint
from equipment that melted…”
said a TEPCO official.
Watch: NHK
broadcast | Tepco
footage
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