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1st robot into Fukushima reactor stalls, but gets some data

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 file photo, a remote-controlled robot that looks like an enlarged fiberscope crawls down into the mock-up of a primary containment chamber of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, during a demonstration for the media at a government facility in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, said Monday, April 13, the first robot, the same type shown in the photo, sent inside one of melted reactors stalled before finishing its work but it collected data that indicates a path to send robots deeper into the reactor is intact. TEPCO said the robot stalled after completing two-thirds of Friday's planned mission inside the Unit 1 containment vessel. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 file photo, a remote-controlled robot that looks like an enlarged fiberscope crawls down into the mock-up of a primary containment chamber of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, during a demonstration for the media at a government facility in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, said Monday, April 13, the first robot, the same type shown in the photo, sent inside one of melted reactors stalled before finishing its work but it collected data that indicates a path to send robots deeper into the reactor is intact. TEPCO said the robot stalled after completing two-thirds of Friday's planned mission inside the Unit 1 containment vessel. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 file photo, a remote-controlled robot that looks like an enlarged fiberscope crawls down into the mock-up of a primary containment chamber of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, during a demonstration for the media at a government facility in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, said Monday, April 13, the first robot, the same type shown in the photo, sent inside one of melted reactors stalled before finishing its work but it collected data that indicates a path to send robots deeper into the reactor is intact. TEPCO said the robot stalled after completing two-thirds of Friday's planned mission inside the Unit 1 containment vessel. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

By Associated Press 3 min read

TOKYO (AP) – The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said Monday that the first robot sent inside one of the melted reactors stalled before finishing its work but collected data that indicates a path exists to send robots deeper into the reactor.

That’s good news for experts designing a robot for a future mission aimed at locating and investigating the residue of the nuclear fuel that melted in the 2011 disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the robot stalled after completing about two-thirds of its planned mission Friday inside the Unit 1 containment vessel.

TEPCO spokesman Teruaki Kobayashi said the robot collected temperature and radiation data and images from parts of the platform around the area known as the pedestal below the bottom of the reactor core before it became stuck and unrecoverable. The robot had been intended for only one use because of the high radiation levels.

A second robot mission scheduled for Monday was postponed while engineers investigate the cause of the stalling. Kobayashi said the robot’s treads may have become stuck on a grating or in a gap as it moved.