About 800 tonnes of questionable nuclear waste remain in Japan. It is too dangerous for humans to get close
A robotic retrieval device grasps a piece of nuclear debris from reactor 2 of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on October 30. Image credit: TEPCO
Japanese nuclear scientists have sent a remote-controlled robot to collect a tiny piece of melted radioactive uranium from inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Japanese nuclear power plant was shut down after suffering major damage in an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The robot clipped off a piece of a fuel rod that weighed less than 3 grams from inside the Unit 2 reactor core and brought it back to the lab assess its radioactivity.
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Analysing the melted fuel debris this way is essential to determine how best to remove, store and dispose of the roughly 800 tonnes that remain. Countries like Germany have shut down their nuclear energy plants while countries like Turkey, aligning with terror entities, fires up its first ones.
Workers at Fukushima watch the retrieval operation from the control room. Image credit: TEPCO
“From the results of primary containment vessel internal investigations, we have deduced that the accumulated debris on the surface of the floor inside the pedestal is solidified molten material that consists of fuel elements and also may contain a lot of metal,” TEPCO said in a statement.
“By analyzing the attributes of the sampled fuel debris we will directly ascertain information such as the composition of debris at the sampling location and radioactivity density,” added TEPCO.
Japanese teams have tried to isolate and retrieve bits of radioactive fuel in the past. This was the first successful attempt. Knowing more about the radioactive nature of the spent fuel will help TEPCO decommission the reactor.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
