A robot has begun a 2-week mission to retrieve melted fuel from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant
An extendable robot has begun a two-week mission to retrieve the first sample of melted fuel debris from inside one of three damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
TOKYO (AP) — An extendable robot began on Tuesday a two-week mission to retrieve the first sample of melted fuel debris from inside one of three damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Highly radioactive fuel and other materials in the reactors melted when a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged the plant's cooling systems.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, has previously used small robots to examine the inside of the reactors, but this is the first time for it to collect a sample of the melted debris in what will mark the start of the most challenging part of the plant's decadeslong decommissioning.
The mission was initially scheduled to begin on Aug. 22 but was suspended when workers noticed that five 1.5-meter (5-foot) pipes to be used to push the robot into the reactor had been arranged in the wrong order, TEPCO said.
