FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN — Toshiba is deploying a robot that looks like a scorpion to enter the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as part of the ongoing struggle to clean up the site, which was heavily damaged during the March the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.
The cylinder-shaped robot was developed with the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning and is designed to enter the primary containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor at the plant.
The aim of the device is to help authorities determine the condition and location of melted-down fuel in the reactor, which is too dangerous for workers to enter.
The robot is 54 cm long and is able to pull itself right-side up if it falls over. A joint near the middle of the robot allows it to raise its tail like a scorpion to allow a camera and LED lights to sweep the environment. This complements another camera and LED lights in the nose section of the robot.
Control signals are sent to the robot through a wire by operators using devices resembling PlayStation game controllers. The 5-kg (11-pound) machine also has a thermometer and a dosimeter and can withstand about 100 Sieverts per hour of radiation for 10 hours.
The robot could be exposed to as much as 70 Sieverts per hour of radiation in the No. 2 reactor. This is about seven times that encountered by robots that ventured into the No. 1 reactor, according to a Toshiba spokeswoman.
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