Robot squeezes suspected nuclear fuel debris in Fukushima reactor

A robot outfitted with remotely controlled pinchers poked at debris that’s suspected to contain molten nuclear fuel at the bottom of one of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors, World Nuclear News reports. The poking and prodding is part of the ongoing cleanup effort at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the site of a major nuclear accident in 2011. The dextrous robot was dangled into the Unit 2 reactor on February 13th, according to a news release from the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Unit 2 is one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant that overheated after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, which caused the reactor core to melt. TEPCO suspects that radioactive fuel may have melted... Continue reading…