A third trial to inspect and retrieve a small amount of radioactive debris from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been announced by plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).
The remotely operated robotic arm, measuring 22 metres and weighing 4.6 tonnes, will snake through narrow passages to conduct internal investigations and retrieve a sample of melted fuel debris from inside the nuclear plant.
In 2011, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The meltdown was considered the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986. Tepco is currently engaged in a decades-long effort to decommission the plant. This includes dealing with large amounts of highly radioactive melted fuel inside three reactors damaged during the disaster.
The crucial first step in this decommissioning process took place in September 2024 when Tepco sent a robot down the Unit 2 reactor to retrieve a tiny amount of melted fuel debris. According...