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Monday, 13 April 2015

Inside Fukushima's ground zero: First robot sent inside melted reactor at tsunami-hit plant dies after just three hours

Daily Mail: The first robot to be sent into the radioactive reactor of Fukushima nuclear power plant has stalled just three hours into its mission. These incredible pictures offer the first glimpse into the melted reactors at the Japanese plant after the 2011 nuclear disaster. More than 300,000 people had to be evacuated after three of Fukushima's six reactors blew up following the huge tsunami which devastated the country over three years ago. Nearly 16,000 people lost their lives in the natural disaster and subsequent devastation. The photographs were captured as part of the robot's mission to inspect melted fuel in one of the reactors. Developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, it was supposed to be able to function for about 10 hours at levels of radiation which would be fatal to humans and cause ordinary electronic devices to malfunction. But decommissioning work at the plant suffered a setback after the adaptable 'transformer' robot stalled before it could complete its operation and had to be abandoned. A second robot mission scheduled for Monday was postponed as engineers investigated the cause of the malfunction...read more>>>...