A video taken by tiny drones sent into 1 of 3 damaged reactors astatine the Fukushima Daiichi atomic powerfulness works shows a gaping spread successful the thick-walled alloy instrumentality of the core, with lumps of apt substance debris hanging from it, successful a archetypal sighting...
ByMARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
TOKYO -- A video taken by tiny drones sent into 1 of 3 damaged reactors astatine the Fukushima Daiichi atomic powerfulness works showed a gaping spread successful the thick-walled alloy instrumentality of the core, with lumps of apt melted substance debris hanging from it, successful a archetypal sighting of a unit vas bottommost since the meltdown 15 years ago.
The uncommon footage was taken by micro-drones — measuring 12 by 13 centimeters (4.7 by 5.1 inches) and weighing lone 95 grams (3.3 ounces) each — deployed for a two-week ngo to cod visual, radiation and different information from wrong the Unit 3 reactor. It was released precocious Thursday.
The March 11, 2011 monolithic quake and tsunami destroyed cooling systems astatine the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing meltdowns astatine reactors No. 1, 2 and 3.
The 3 reactors incorporate astatine slightest 880 tons of melted substance debris with radiation levels inactive dangerously high. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, successfully took tiny melted substance samples from the Unit 2 reactor past year, but interior details stay small known.
TEPCO plans much remote-controlled probes and sampling to analyse melted substance and to make robots for aboriginal substance debris removal that experts accidental could instrumentality decades more.
Sending drones arsenic adjacent arsenic imaginable to the unit vessel's bottommost was an important extremity of the latest probe, according to the works operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
During aggregate formation missions successful the probe that began March 5, remote-controlled micro-drones, 1 astatine a time, cautiously flew astir debris, breached instrumentality and different obstacles to instrumentality footage wrong the superior containment chamber, including astir the bottommost of the unit vessel.
The footage showed tubes with ruptures and different damaged structures that utilized to beryllium wrong the unit vessel, which primitively was enclosed. It besides showed brownish and grey objects hanging similar elephantine icicles.
TEPCO spokesperson Masaki Kuwajima said officials confirmed determination was a spread astatine the bottommost of the vas and that those hanging objects, lumps and deposits are believed to beryllium melted substance debris.
The drones besides collected radiation measurements and information to nutrient a elaborate three-dimensional representation of the wrong of the Unit 3 reactor, Kuwajima said. “We person obtained invaluable information that tin beryllium utilized for our aboriginal interior investigations and to make melted substance debris removal strategy.”
The latest drone ngo came astir a decennary aft an earlier underwater robot probe provided a little wide representation of the wrong of the Unit 3 reactor.
English (CA) · 
English (US) · 
Spanish (MX) ·