A swimming automaton that was station into one of the flood reactors of Japan ’s Fukushima works has retort its first images and footage , a key stride towards houseclean up the site .
The robot is predict " Little Sunfish " , or " miniskirt manbo " , and we first learn about itback in June . The Tokyo Electric Power Company ( TEPCO ) , who is start the clean - up cognitive operation , have now let on the first footage from the golem .
Little Sunfish was commit into Fukushima ’s Unit 3 on Wednesday , one of three reactors that went into meltdown in March 2011 after a tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station . About 160,000 people were evacuated from the nearby orbit as a result of the radiation making water , with piffling prospect of ever bring back .
“ This was the first fourth dimension that a automaton has entered the containment vessel of reactor 3 , ” articulate Takahiro Kimoto , a Tepco spokesman , reported theJapan Times . “ We imagine this is a big step . ”
In video recording footage recorded by the robot , scattered equipment can be seen inside the nuclear reactor . Some brand diffraction grating that would have playact as scaffolding were also in the ill-timed place , something engineers could not explain .
However , the robot did not locate any melted fuel rubble in this first excursion , which lasted three hours . This was merely atest of the robot . The next step will be to send the robot even deeper into Unit 3 today , where the water is about 6 beat ( 20 foot ) thick . The ultimate goal is to locate all of the melted radioactive fuel from the reactor , so that the clean-living - up physical process can commence .
The robot , call an underwater ROV ( Remotely Operated Vehicle ) , measures just 30 centimeters ( 11.9 inch ) retentive and 13 centimeters ( 5.1 inch ) wide . It has front- and rear - confront cameras and LED telegram . Five thrusters , four at the rear and one at the front , help steer it through Fukushima .
It get into Unit 3 through a borehole practise by engineers , with a prospicient cable used to supply power and keep running of the golem . This borehole measure out just 14 centimeter ( 5.5 inches ) across , just widely enough for Little Sunfish to go through .
The robot can handle radiation levels of up to 200 Sieverts per minute . But some share of the plant life have levels of up to530 Sievertsper hour , more than enough to pop a human . Other golem that have been sent into Fukushima before have failed .
The process of cleaning up Fukushima will be long and expensive . railroad engineer do not require to witness all of the melted fuel from the three reactors until 2021 . It will then take four X to cleanse - up this fuel and decommission Fukushima , at a cost of $ 188 billion .
