Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Saturday that it had sent a robot into the No. 3 reactor building at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO released a film to media, showing the robot moving inside the reactor with a vacuum cleaner to gather up radioactive dust.
NHK reported that TEPCO has already injected nitrogen into the containment vessels at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors to prevent a hydrogen explosion. TEPCO said that according to its schedule, it hopes to have the No. 3 reactor under control by July 17.
Currently, the radioactive level remains too high for workers to enter the building due to a previous hydrogen explosion.
© Compiled from news reports
18 Comments
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some14some
will robot survive? let's wait and watch until 17th July, 2011
Mesomorph
Let's hope someone remembered to charge the battery.
tigerguy
Let's face it. They don't know what the h#@l they're doing. Bring in the big mouth experts from around the world.
SquidBert
I don't know, but a robot with a vacuum cleaner somehow makes me think of "The Jetssons" , well ....
saru_au
do they get paid by the word ?
is there anyone on the planet now that doesn't know what TEPCO is ?
ihavegreatlegs
Wrong Saru_au ... what Tepco was!
yildiray
Will you still hold that view if they manage to get #3 under control in 2 weeks time?
Spidapig24
yildiray,
HAHA will never happen, l will gladly eat my words if by some fluke they manage to achieve this but deep down l think NO HOPE!!!
Having looked at the pictures of reactor building 3, is thee much of a building left for the robot to enter? Much less any radioactive dust for it to clean up. Most of the "building" has no walls and is just a skeleton on twisted steel.
Zenny11
What people forget is that only 1/3 of the actual site/reactor is above ground and the building just a cover/shell, the real hardcore stuff is below grounds.
Guys, check your facts before posting.
yildiray
From your recent posts it sounds more like you hope they don't fix it so you can keep playing the drama queen to be honest.
Spidapig24
yildiray,
What my one post earlier that said l really dont believe that they will achieve their goal of 2 weeks to get the situation in reactor 3 under control?
Given all the problems and setbacks that they have had recently do you really think they will get the situation under control in 2 weeks?
Yuichi Kitagawa
I hope the robot will help the workers of TEPCO.
Cos
Why didn't they just send a herd of those round vacuum cleaners that do the job on their own ?
cleo
Cos they get clogged up in no time at all. They're fantastic if you can run them every day so's there isn't much to pick up, but for a really mucky place you gotta go round with the ordinary vacuum first.
Disillusioned
And you do, I suppose. Please have a look at all the available images of the destruction inside the reactor building. This is not as simple as walking in and switching it off. However, I am not supporting the actions of TEPCO so far. It is now getting on four months since the disaster and the are still stuffing around with countless double-Dutch statements on the severity and how they intend to deal with it. It is far beyond time they got their finger out and did something about this. The J-Gov should have stepped in and shut this down months ago. Their have many international agencies and professionals offering to come in and shut it down for them, but in true Japanese style they have denied it to save costs and to save face, at the expense of the health of a couple of million residents within the danger zone. おつかでさま!
tigerguy
@Disillusioned, that's why I also stated that they should bring in the outside experts or use their advice. Yes the images of the destruction supports me saying they don't know what they're doing. It's a mess! Where's the brainstorming session from the world's best people on this?
tigerguy
No, but the chances are slim. Good luck to them!
borscht
Don't forget, this is Tepco. In two weeks they will say they have plant three under control.