Tepco Sends New Robots to Scout Fukushima Reactor

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) sent a pair of shape-shifting robots into the Fukushima Daiichi power station on Wednesday, April 15, in a second attempt to gather data on the temperature and radiation levels from the reactor.

Local reports said a monitoring camera on one robot broke down, but Tepco believed it would not affect the operation.

Tepco said the robots detected radiation dose from 4.7 to 9.7 sieverts per hour, less than one-tenth of what was expected, while the temperatures were lower than room temperature.

Tepco’s first robot began the probe into the damaged reactor on Monday, April 10, but stalled after completing two-thirds of its planned mission. The robots were deployed to locate and eventually remove nuclear fuel that might have fallen from the center of the primary containment vessel after the March 2011 tsunami damaged the plant’s coolant system.

The robots, developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, were able to withstand severe radiation conditions and change shape to navigate obstacles.

This video, released two days after the mission on April 17, shows interior of the reactor building.. Credit: Facebook/Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (TEPCO)