Robot begins daring journey into Fukushima's melted-down nuclear reactor core

A robot has entered the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima power plant and if its mission is successful it will collect a small amount of nuclear waste that will then be examined by researchers.

The Fukushima power plant went into meltdown in 2011 following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, causing approximately 880 tons of nuclear waste that will take until 2050 to clear away and decontaminate the area completely. Unfortunately, this estimation is on the side of optimistic, as researchers aren't even sure what kind of state the nuclear fuel is in, hence the involvement of a small robot grabber.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), the company that owns the site, has previously sent robots inside the reactor cores, and, unfortunately, they have experienced mixed success. In 2015, the company sent a robot into Unit 1, where it died three hours later after being exposed to a radioactive area. An underwater robot managed to get more success in 2017. In approximately two weeks, the robot will be pushed into the Unit 2 reactor by metal poles that extend up to 72 feet.

"We believe the test removal of fuel debris from Unit 2 is an important part of the decommissioning work to be carried out," Yusuke Nakagawa, team manager at TEPCO, told Associated Press. "We believe it is important to proceed with the test removal of fuel debris in a safe and reliable manner."

"The government will firmly and responsibly tackle the decommissioning until the very end," insisted government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi