The highly radioactive fuel melted and broke through the containment vessel in at least one of the reactors. Radioactivity is immensely high in the reactors and it is impossible for humans to enter even with protective gear.
The clean-up and decommissioning of the nuclear plant is likely to take 40 years and cost over $15 billion.
The 60-centimeter (2-foot) long robot has been developed by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, an organization made up of electric power companies and nuclear power plant manufacturers, with a government subsidy. It was demonstrated this week at a facility northeast of Tokyo. It is expected to enter the Unit 1 reactor this spring.
The robot is tubular and it is designed to go through a 10 centimeter wide electrical wiring pipe in order to enter the containment chamber. Emerging from the pipe, it will dangle down and reach a platform near the reactor core's bottom layer.
Changing shape to become U-shaped, the robot will take pictures and measure radioactivity and temperature for transmitting to the control station outside.
"Depending on how much data we can collect from this area, I believe (the probe) will give us a clearer vision for future decommissioning," Hitachi-GE engineer Yoshitomo Takahashi said, according to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun. Through computer simulations scientists think that the fuel rods in Unit 1 reactor "probably melted and fell to the bottom of the containment chamber" Asahi Shimbun said.
In 2012, technicians tried to insert a fiberscope to find out the situation but images were of no use. Several other attempts to send in robots have been made in the past four years but with very limited success. The first to be tried were were the US-made PackBot and Warrior robots. Then, in the summer of 2011, the Japanese made Quince bots surveyed the reactor buildings. One was sent inside Unit 2 but it got entangled in its own cable and is still sitting there.
In order to assess debris on the bottom and submerged underwater, an amphibious robot is being developed for deployment next year.
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