The Japanese government announced on Thursday that they were unable to continue their plan to use drones to investigate one of the impaired reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant due to malfunctioning equipment.

On Wednesday, two drones were able to enter the reactor and inspect the molten fuel debris and damaged areas that previous robots could not reach. However, on Thursday, this progress was hindered and highlighted the challenging nature of the task.

The government and TEPCO intend to eliminate the significant quantity of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel that still remains in each reactor following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, which damaged the power supply and cooling systems of the plant and resulted in a triple meltdown.

The challenging dismantling procedure has been hindered by technical difficulties and a shortage of information, causing numerous delays over several years.

Experts have stated that TEPCO has been making preparations since July to send out a total of four drones, one at a time, into the primary containment vessel of the severely damaged No. 1 reactor. This reactor’s core experienced a meltdown and most of its fuel sunk to the concrete bottom.

On Wednesday, the initial two drones took pictures revealing sufficient room for the remaining two to access the specific area desired by TEPCO’s specialists for examination.

According to TEPCO spokesperson Kenichi Takahara, flights scheduled for Thursday had to be called off due to a malfunctioning crawling robot. The robot’s purpose was to transfer information from a drone’s HD camera to the control room, but it experienced a failure while attempting to reach its intended location.

Takahara stated that the reason for its failure is currently being investigated, but did not provide further details or give a timeframe for the next drone flight.

The head of the Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning, Akira Ono expressed a sense of cautious optimism.

He suggested that we avoid pressuring it as it may result in more significant issues for our future tasks. He simply wants to proceed with caution.

During the initial day of the project, which was expected to span two days, the pair of drones performed a thorough inspection of the perimeter surrounding the main structural support, known as the pedestal, in the vessel. This support is situated directly beneath the core of the reactor. The goal was to capture footage of the bottom of the core in order to determine the extent of overheated fuel that had dripped there in 2011.

Officials from TEPCO have stated that they intend to utilize the recently gathered data to create advanced technology for future investigations and also for developing a method to extract the melted fuel from the reactor.

Approximately 880 tons of extremely radioactive molten nuclear fuel still exist within the three impaired reactors. Skeptics argue that the government and TEPCO’s goal of completing the cleanup in 30 to 40 years is unrealistically hopeful. As each reactor has unique damages and conditions, the plans must be adjusted accordingly.

TEPCO has utilized multiple probes, such as a robotic crawler and an underwater vehicle, to enter each reactor. However, these attempts were impeded by obstacles, intense radiation, and challenges maneuvering through the rubble. Despite these complications, some data was successfully collected. In 2015, the inaugural robot sent inside became trapped on a grate.

Source: wral.com