Toshiba unveils device for Fukushima nuclear reactor probe
Toshiba Corp.'s energy systems unit has unveiled a long telescopic pipe carrying a pan-tilt camera designed for an internal probe of one of damaged reactor chambers at Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
The device shown to media Friday is 13 meters (43 feet) long and designed to give officials a deeper view into the nuclear plant's Unit 2 primary containment vessel, where details on melted fuel damage remain largely unknown.
The Fukushima plant had triple meltdowns following the 2011 quake and tsunami.
Finding melted fuel details is crucial to determining the right method and technology for its removal, the most challenging process during the plant's decades-long decommissioning.
A simpler predecessor to the pipe unveiled Friday captured a limited view of the vessel and an even earlier crawling robot stalled inside.
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Toshiba Corporation unveiled a pan-tilt camera developed by the Toshiba Corp. and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRND), designed to inspect the interior of the damaged primary containment vessel of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 in Yokohama, Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. The device shown to media Friday is 13 meters (43 feet) long and designed to give officials a deeper view into the nuclear plant's Unit 2 primary containment vessel, where details on melted fuel damage remain largely unknown. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) -
Toshiba Corp. unveiled its pan-tilt camera design with the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRND), to inspect interior of damaged primary containment vessel of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 in Yokohama, Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. The device shown to media Friday is 13 meters (43 feet) long and designed to give officials a deeper view into the nuclear plant's Unit 2 primary containment vessel, where details on melted fuel damage remain largely unknown. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
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