Fukushima Daiichi Decommissioning Efforts Resume with Robot Deployment

An extendable robot resumes work at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to collect a sample of melted fuel debris, crucial for decommissioning efforts. The mission had been delayed due to a technical mishap. This operation aims to retrieve a small fragment of radioactive material, offering insights for future cleanup methods.

An extendable robot resumed its entry into one of the damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Tuesday, nearly three weeks after a technical issue halted its previous attempt to retrieve a fragment of melted fuel debris.

The mission's success marks a critical step in the long-term decommissioning of the plant's Unit 2 reactor, one of three destroyed in the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The mix-up involving the assembly of the robot's pipes was labeled a "basic mistake" by plant operator TEPCO, leading to an internal review and concerns from local officials and residents. The mission aims to extract and study a small sample of radioactive debris to inform future cleanup strategies.

(With inputs from agencies.)