A remote-controlled robot has succeeded in pinpointing the spot where highly radioactive water has been leaking at a damaged Japanese reactor.
The robot was sent close to the lower part of the No.1 reactor's containment vessel at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on Wednesday.
The lower section is filled with contaminated water injected to cool molten nuclear fuel. Extremely high radiation levels have hampered efforts to probe that section.
The robot's camera captured images of water leaking from two holes in the containment vessel into the building housing the reactor. But TEPCO engineers could not say how much water had leaked through the holes. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour.
They suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No.2 and No.3 reactors is also causing similar leaks of contaminated water, Japan's NHK broadcaster reported.
Locating the exact spot of leak is important not only in solving water contamination problems but also in carrying out decommissioning of the reactors. TEPCO is now planning to use robots to spot other leaks which had been causing concern to the company as well as the Japanese government forcing it to seek help from abroad to tackle the problem.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the U.S. Energy Department are cooperating with TEPCO to check the leak and prevent it from seeping into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
A powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami in March 2011 knocked out the cooling system of the Fukushima plant resulting in meltdown in four of its six reactors. Massive radiation from the crippled plant contaminated food and water forcing the evacuation of more than 160,000 residents in a 30-kilometer radius of the plant.
TEPCO is seeking public funds to provide compensation to the victims which, it says, will be more than $50 billion. The company is also in the process of decommissioning the plant which is expected to take 30 to 40 years.
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