melted nuclear fuel
Fukushima wastewater has been released, but other challenges, like removing melted nuclear fuel, remain
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. At a small section of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's central control room, the treated water transfer switch is on. A graph on a computer monitor nearby shows a steady decrease of water levels as treated radioactive wastewater is diluted and released into the Pacific Ocean. In the coastal area of the plant, two seawater pumps are in action, gushing torrents of seawater through sky blue pipes into the big header where the treated water, which comes down through a much thinner black pipe from the hilltop tanks, is diluted hundreds of times before the release.
- Asia > Japan > Honshū > Tōhoku > Fukushima Prefecture > Fukushima (0.65)
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More melted nuclear fuel found inside a Fukushima reactor
More melted fuel has been found at the bottom of the Fukushima power planet, seven years after Japan's worst nuclear disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant, says a long telescopic probe has successfully captured images of the fuel inside the plant's Unit 2 primary containment vessel. The images showed that at least part of the fuel breached the core, falling to the vessel's floor. TEPCO says that that the status inside the primary containment vessel is still stable, and that there are no changes in radiation levels at the site boundaries of Fukushima Daiichi's Nuclear Power Plant. A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused three reactors at the Fukushima plant to melt.
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A submersible robot has spotted what representatives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) say is likely missing melted nuclear fuel from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In the wake of a magnitude 9 earthquake, the power plant was disastrously taken off-line. The area remains contaminated so an unmanned robot nicknamed "Little Sunfish" was sent below water to survey the flooded parts of plant and hunt for the melted nuclear fuel. Tepco spokesman Takahiro Kimoto told the Japan Times that video taken by the robot over three days shows clumps of what is likely to be melted fuel.
- Information Technology > Robotics & Automation (1.00)
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Fukushima: robot images show massive deposits thought to be melted nuclear fuel
Images captured by an underwater robot on Saturday showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1m on the bottom inside a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. On Friday, the robot spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant. The three-day investigation of Unit 3 ended on Saturday. Locating and analysing the fuel debris and damage in each of the plant's three wrecked reactors is crucial for decommissioning the plant. The search for melted fuel in the two other reactors has so far been unsuccessful because of damage and extremely high radiation levels.
Robot finds likely melted fuel heap inside Fukushima reactor
This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning via AP) This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning via AP) This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows heaps of solidified lava-like rocks believed to be nuclear fuel that had melted in the 2011 accident during a probe inside of the Unit 3 reactor at Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. TOKYO (AP) -- Images captured by an underwater robot showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. On Friday, the robot spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant.