Eerie new drone footage has revealed the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant for the first time, 13 years after its meltdown.
The plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site, which are the first images ever taken from inside the main structural support called a pedestal in the primary containment vessel of the hardest hit reactor, an area directly below the reactor core.
Authorities had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel that escaped there when the plant’s cooling systems were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
High-definition color images captured by drones show brown objects of different shapes and sizes hanging from various locations on the pedestal.
Parts of the control rod drive mechanism, which controls the nuclear chain reaction, as well as other equipment attached to the core were dislodged by the drones.
The Fukushima disaster is one of the most devastating nuclear accidents in the world.
The plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site.
Authorities had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and the melted nuclear fuel flowing there.
TEPCO officials said they were unable to determine from the images whether the dangling pieces were melted fuel or melted equipment without obtaining other data such as radiation levels.
TEPCO officials said they were unable to determine from the images whether the dangling pieces were melted fuel or melted equipment without obtaining other data such as radiation levels.
The drones were not equipped with dosimeters to measure radiation because they had to be light and maneuverable.
About 880 tons of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors.
TEPCO is trying to learn more about its location and condition to facilitate its removal so the plant can be decommissioned.
Drone cameras could not see the bottom of the reactor core, in part because of the darkness of the containment vessel, officials said.
Information from the probe could aid future investigations of melted debris, which are key to developing technologies and robots for its removal, they said.
High-definition color images captured by drones show brown objects of different shapes and sizes hanging from various locations on the pedestal.
The drones did not carry dosimeters to measure radiation because they had to be light and maneuverable.
Around 880 tonnes of highly radioactive melted nuclear fuel remains inside the three damaged reactors
TEPCO is trying to learn more about its location and condition to facilitate its removal so the plant can be decommissioned.
But the large amount of information that remains unknown about the interiors of the reactors suggests how difficult this will be. Critics say the 30 to 40 year target set by the government and TEPCO for cleaning up the plant is too optimistic.
The dreaded decommissioning process has already been delayed for years due to technical obstacles and lack of data.
The Fukushima disaster was one of the most devastating nuclear accidents in the world.
It follows a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s east coast, one of the strongest ever recorded in Japan.
The earthquake was so powerful that it shifted the Earth from its axis and triggered a massive tsunami that swept across Japan’s main island, Honshu.
Drone cameras could not see the bottom of the reactor core, in part because of the darkness of the containment vessel, officials said.
Information from the probe could aid future investigations of molten debris, which are key to developing technologies and robots for its removal.
The Fukushima disaster followed a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off Japan’s east coast, one of the strongest ever recorded in Japan.
To date, the exclusion remains in effect and almost all displaced residents have not yet returned.
The nuclear disaster was classified as a level seven event by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The destruction caused by the tsunami alone killed 18,000 people.
Water from the deadly tsunami easily overwhelmed Fukushima’s coastal defenses and flooded the reactor, melting it.
As more radiation leaked from the plant, more than 150,000 people were forced to evacuate the surrounding area.
To date, the exclusion remains in effect and almost all displaced residents have not yet returned.
Japanese authorities estimate that it will take up to 40 years to decontaminate the area.
The nuclear disaster was classified as a level seven event by the International Atomic Energy Agency, marking only the second event since the meltdown of Chernobyl’s fourth reactor in 1986.
THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR DISASTER IN JAPAN IN 2011
In 2011, a 10-meter-high tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people crashed into Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This led to several meltdowns, allowing harmful radioactive fuel rods and debris to escape from confined areas.
Nearly a decade after the disaster, researchers are still struggling to clean up waste fuel from reactor waters.
It is estimated that plant officials have located only 10 percent of the waste fuel left behind after nuclear meltdowns.
And the damaged plant is believed to be releasing small amounts of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean, which could spread as far as the US west coast.
Researchers are now pinning their hopes on remote-controlled swimming robots to locate lost fuel to find the safest way to dispose of it.
The government lifted evacuation orders for much of the meltdown-affected region, except for some off-limits areas with high radiation levels.
As authorities encourage evacuees to return, the population of Fukushima prefecture has fallen by more than half from the two million residents before the disaster.
Tsunami waves crash over seawalls towards TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma
Smoke billows from destroyed Unit 3 of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant following earthquake and tsunami
The aerial view shows ongoing public housing construction in Okawara district, where the government lifted a mandatory evacuation order in 2019.