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TEPCO loses non-responsive robot during vital inspection of Fukushima reactor vessel

Xinhua, April 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Monday said it had failed to retrieve a high-tech, shape-shifting robot it had deployed to inspect the condition of the No. 1 reactor's containment vessel, as the machine became unresponsive shortly after it performed the critical survey.

The embattled utility confirmed on Monday that it had cut the cables it was using to control the robot and said that the survey to check the interior of the reactor's primary containment vessel would be postponed, along with Monday's more specific inspection.

TEPCO has opted to use robots to check the reactor's containment vessel as the high levels of radiation make it impossible for the vessel to be checked by humans. This was the first time TEPCO has attempted to used a robot to check the reactor buildings since the multiple meltdowns in March 2011, although, it was at least the third time they have had to rely on robots for critical tasks at the faulty plant.

In March 2014, TEPCO deployed robots to the roof of the building that contains the No. 2 reactor and used a machine to drill for samples from the concrete floor to be tested for radiation.

In November 2013, the utility also used a robotic probe to confirm that contaminated water was indeed leaking from the No. 1 reactor's containment vessel.

TEPCO maintained that despite its current lack of automated means, it ultimately plans to inspect the bottom of the containment vessel using a new robot, where a wedge of melted nuclear fuel waste may be critically amassing.

The more detailed inspection which was scheduled to take place Monday has been postponed until suitable hardware becomes available, TEPCO said.

The now disabled robot first deployed on Friday, was equipped with cameras, a thermometer and a dosimeter, and was developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning.

Manual methods have been used up until now and tests using cosmic rays have verified the fact that the majority of the fuel, at least in the No. 1 reactor, has melted and dropped into the containment vessel, causing radiation levels to spike. The situation is almost certainly the same in the other two reactors, TEPCO believes. Endi