logo
  • Home
  • Book Content
  • Author
  • Press Kit
  • Maps and Diagrams
  • Videos
  • Blog
Fukushima and the coming Tokyo Earthquake Logo
05 Dec2017

Robots finally find the melted fuel cores

December 5, 2017. Written by Tony Smyth. Posted in Blog

Six years after the Fukushima meltdowns engineers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have succeeded in guiding a small robot to the heart of the heavily damaged Reactor 3 reactor and located the fuel which melted onto the floor of the reactor building. Earlier robots had failed, getting caught on debris or suffering circuit malfunctions from excess radiation (see previous blog about this). But the newer version, called the Mini-Manbo, or “little sunfish,” was made of radiation-hardened materials with a sensor to help it avoid dangerous hot spots in the flooded reactor buildings. After three days of careful manoeuvring the robot sent back a video of a gaping hole at the bottom of the reactor and, on the floor beneath it, clumps of what looked like solidified lava but was actually melted uranium fuel.

The Manbo (see photo) used tiny propellers to hover and glide through water in a manner similar to an aerial drone. Uranium fuel rods in three of the Fukushima reactors had liquefied, then dripped to the bottom of the reactor vessels in a molten mass hot enough to burn through the steel walls and even penetrate the concrete floors below.

The Japanese prime minister’s office has set a target date of 2021 – the 10th anniversary of the disaster – when workers begin extracting the melted fuel from Reactor 3. They also hope that beginning the cleanup will help them win the public’s consent to restart Japan’s undamaged nuclear plants, most of which remain shut down since the disaster.

Tepco have just begun began installing equipment to be used for removing fuel from the storage pool of Reactor 3. The equipment, weighing 72 tons, was lifted by two large cranes. The storage pool, located on a floor 36 meters above ground level, holds the remains of 566 spent and unused nuclear fuel assemblies.

Trackback from your site.

Leave a comment

Blogs

  • The clock that stopped
  • Thoughts on the 10th anniversary of the tsunami and meltdowns of March 2011
  • What are the dangers in the planned release of water from the Fukushima site?
  • Update on progress in food and water safety in Fukushima
  • Japan to build new coal-burning power plants, despite the climate risks
  • Fukushima is running out of space to store its radioactive water
  • Fukushima gets it first surf shop since the 2011 meltdowns
  • Cancer rates at Fukushima as of March 2018
  • The Fukushima ice wall fails to keep out groundwater
  • Smashwords interview
  • Robots finally find the melted fuel cores
  • Hunters kill radioactive wild boars in Fukushima nuclear disaster zone
  • Cancer among workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi
  • Little radiation off Fukushima six years after meltdown
  • The world with over 1°C temperature rise
  • Radiation levels kill Tepco’s robots

Recent Comments

  • Avatar

    Tony Smyth

    July 16, 2017 | #

    Hey. Yes its just been finished. Hurrah. BUT I’m off to Europe tomorrow so will release it a few days after I get back. Probably round August 9th. A book launch needs many things coordinated to improve publicity and I can’t do that from Dublin/Berlin. Besides which I’ve been incredibly busy these last 10 weeks, not just physically but mentally. A well earned rest and many pints of Guiness sounds good to me. Thanks for the interest.

  • Avatar

    Jonathan L.

    July 16, 2017 | #

    Hello Tony, I’m kind of curious — any news about the editing on your book?

  • Avatar

    Tony Smyth

    April 27, 2017 | #

    Thanks Jonathan. Its been finished for a while, its just the guy doing the final conversion to ebook format is very busy, hence the delay. It will be out on Kindle first then on Smashwords. In print on Amazon a bit later.
    I’m already researching for the sequel to it which will basically argue that the current economic paradigm is broken and that major change is ahead, whether we like it or not. Provisional title is ‘Inverting the pyramid’ plus it will have some subhead which may come to me as I write it. We live in interesting times.

  • Avatar

    Jonathan L. Seagull

    April 27, 2017 | #

    Your book looks really interesting, I hope you release it on Kindle Unlimited!

  • Avatar

    GJS

    April 21, 2017 | #

    Blog up and running. Keep people informed, this stuff is real and a threat. Looking forward to the book as well.

  • Contact Tony Smyth
  • Useful Links

All contents copyright © Tony Smyth

Website by: I Clawdius Design

  • Home
  • Book Content
  • Author
  • Press Kit
  • Maps and Diagrams
  • Videos
  • Blog