Using remote cameras and robotics, technicians are able to explore the interior of Unit 2 from a central control room 350 meters away. Molten fuel ultimately sank into the three reactors' primary containment vessels, which are designed to catch and secure contaminated material. They left a radioactive heap of concrete, steel and melted debris. Temperatures inside the reactors skyrocketed to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius).įuel rods became molten puddles of uranium that chewed through the floors below. "Unless there's an acceleration, I would not be surprised if it takes 60 years or so."įollowing the initial quake, two 50-foot-high waves barreled straight at Fukushima Daiichi, washing over coastal seawalls and disabling the diesel generators that powered the plant's seawater cooling systems. "It's of the magnitude of putting a man on the moon," says Lake Barrett, a senior advisor to Tepco, who previously served as acting director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management at the US Department of Energy. The effort will take so long that Tepco, Fukushima's owner, and the government are now grooming a next generation of robotics experts to finish the job. It will require the development of new processes and specialized technologies. Shutting it down completely is expected to take decades. Fukushima Daiichi, the decommissioned power plant, is like no place I've ever been.Įach day, thousands of workers struggle to clean up the disabled 860-acre site. Thousands of workers are here as part of a cleanup that will likely take the rest of their lives, if not longer. The facility is surprisingly colorful and busy. We're approaching Fukushima Daiichi, where a guard stands near the entrance. The following is a collection of key moments from our journey.Īs we pass through what remains of an abandoned village, my Geiger counter begins to register the remnants of the nuclear disaster. This problem is so massive that it will likely take several decades and tens of billions of dollars to fix.Īhead of the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster, CNET paid a visit to Fukushima to look at the different kinds of technology being employed at the facility, whether it's robots going into the reactors themselves, or drones and virtual reality offering views of the facility.
#NUCLEAR REACTOR MELTDOWN IN JAPAN 2011 SERIES#
It's also a place where technology plays a unique - and critical - role in the cleanup efforts.įixing Fukushima is a multipart series that explores the role technology plays in cleaning up the worst nuclear disaster in history. The meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 was the worst nuclear disaster in history. To learn more about the ongoing cleanup efforts, read Japan's latest report, issued to the International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this month. Editor's note: This story originally ran on March 4, 2018, and we're reposting it for the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster to give readers a sense of the technology being employed to fix this enormous problem, which continues today.
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