In efforts for nuclear decommissioning, a remote-controlled robot named Telesco has successfully retrieved the first sample of melted nuclear fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It is Managed by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO).
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011, led to meltdowns in three of the plant’s reactors. Since then, TEPCO has launched numerous robotic missions to assess the damage and develop a safe decommissioning strategy for the approximately 880 tons of remaining radioactive molten fuel. The Telesco robot is the latest in these explorations, equipped with a specialized “fishing rod” appendage to carefully collect nuclear debris.
The collected sample, weighing around 3 grams (0.1 ounces) and roughly the size of a 5mm piece of gravel, was obtained from the base of reactor number 2’s containment vessel. Workers in full HAZMAT suits then transferred the sample to an enclosed container for radioactive analysis. TEPCO aims to determine how radioactive materials have degraded over the past 13 years to aid in developing future cleanup technologies and a comprehensive decommissioning strategy.
Retrieving this sample was no easy feat. Initially scheduled for August, the mission faced procedural delays that held up operations for three weeks. Further setbacks occurred when Telesco’s twin cameras, essential for providing first-person views, malfunctioned, requiring repairs and an additional attempt to deploy the robot. Despite these challenges, Telesco finally succeeded in retrieving a sample from beneath the Unit 2 reactor core which is a key location where large amounts of molten fuel accumulated during the 2011 meltdown.
“Only the tiny sample could provide crucial data to plan the decommissioning strategy,” said TEPCO’s plant chief, Akira Ono.