Unlimited Nuclear Disaster Updates

[Woolly Bugger]

Images from deep inside Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant show daunting scale of clean-up job

Images taken by miniature drones from deep inside a badly damaged reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant show displaced control equipment and misshapen materials but leave many questions unanswered, underscoring the daunting task of decommissioning the plant.

The 12 photos released by the plant's operator are the first from inside the main structural support called the pedestal in the hardest-hit No. 1 reactor's primary containment vessel, an area directly under the reactor's core. Officials had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel which dripped there when the plant's cooling systems were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Earlier attempts with robots were unable to reach the area. The two-day probe using tiny drones was completed last week by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, which released the photos on Monday.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-japan-drone-photos-deep-inside-reactor-1-meltdown/

[Woolly Bugger]

Current State of Post-Accident Operations at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station


...The removal of fuel debris has been delayed. Experimental removal using a removal device (a folding robot arm of 22m in length) originally scheduled in the Mid-term Roadmap to take place in Unit 2 in FY2021 has been delayed (for the third time) until October 2024. Having been delayed due to the COVID-19 infection and then malfunctioning of the removal device, trouble has also been experienced opening the reactor vessel penetration hatch (X-6 penetration) to be used to insert the device. The hatch having been opened, it was found that cables, etc. inside the penetration, which melted during the accident, have fused and are lying in a heap. TEPCO built a device to push away the accumulated material using machinery and water (scheduled to be completed at the end of FY2023). The plan now is to use an experimental telescopic-type removal device, differing from the robot arm removal device, that can be inserted into the hatch without removing the accumulated material. This device will be used to extract debris on an experimental basis by October, and then from the end of FY2024 through to FY2025 the robot arm removal device will also be used to extract debris. In addition, investigations are ongoing due to water level reductions occurring in the Unit 1 pressure containment vessel (PCV) and Unit 3 PCV and suppression chamber.


https://cnic.jp/english/?p=7057

This detailed report shows that they still don't know how they are going to clean up this nightmare!

[Woolly Bugger]

First Images Inside Fukushima's Nuclear Reactor Show "Icicle-Like" Structures
Many robots have ventured into the ruins of Fukushima, but few have returned.

A snake-like robot and mini drones have ventured deep inside the irradiated reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan. As shown in their new images, the clean-up operations still have some way to go 13 years after the catastrophic nuclear meltdown.

The decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has made progress. In 2023, they finally went ahead with their controversial plan to dump treated water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific Ocean, marking a significant milestone in its clean up.

However, there have been a considerable number of setbacks. In 2017, the ruins of Fukushima were dubbed a "robot graveyard" owing to the number of remote-controlled probes that had broken inside the irradiated facility.

TEPCO has said the full decommissioning of the plant will "require 30 to 40 years", but critics say this is naively optimistic.

https://www.iflscience.com/first-images-inside-fukushimas-nuclear-reactor-show-icicle-like-structures-73731