Six years after Fukushima, robots finally find reactors’ melted uranium fuel

Third IAEA mission to review Japan’s plans and work to decommission the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 2015. Photo Credit: Susanna Loof / IAEA.

After three days of carefully navigating through a shattered reactor building, the Manbo finally reached the heavily damaged Unit 3 reactor. There, the robot beamed back video of a gaping hole at the bottom of the reactor and, on the floor beneath it, clumps of what looked like solidified lava: the first images ever taken of the plant’s melted uranium fuel.

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Image by Flickr Creative Commons