There's been another delay in the plan to clean up the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Japan Times reported today that the country's government approved another revision to the cleanup schedule that will push removal of radioactive fuel rods from reacto...
Fukushima's ill-fated nuclear power plant may still be so dangerous that it kills robots, but residents are trickling back as officials decide that radiation levels are safe in some areas. But are they safe enough that you'd never have to worry abou...
The second robot Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent into Fukushima's unit 2 reactor also failed to finish its mission. Earlier this month, the cameras of the first "scorpion" robot that ventured into the reactor malfunctioned after two hours d...
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) wasn't kidding when it said the radiation levels inside Fukushima's nuclear reactor are the highest they've been since its meltdown in 2011. It had to pull out the robot it sent in to find the exact location of melted...
Radiation levels inside the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor are over 100 times fatal levels, the highest they've been since the triple meltdown in March, 2011, according to operator Tepco. The company recently sent a camera-equipped robot into the...
Radioactive elements from Japan’s nuclear plant have been detected within several hundred miles of U.S. western coast, suggesting that Fukushima disaster continues to leak radiation even five years...
Catastrophic nuclear accidents like Chernobyl disaster that took place in 1986 and the more recent Japan's Fukushima disasters in 2011 may not be relics of the past. But the risk of such disasters...
Five years after an earthquake-triggered tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, there's still a tremendous amount of cleanup work left. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which runs the plant, has managed to clean out spent fuel...
Toshiba is showing off a robot that will be performing a task that no human can safely do themselves. Sometime next year, this big crane-like robot will be lowered into the cooling pool of Japan’s Fukushima reactor 3 building where radiation levels are too high for humans to go.
Once there the ‘bot will use its arms to pick up debris and remove fuel rods from the radioactive water inside the chamber. The robot has two arms designed to pick up and cut debris along with a third designed to grab fuel rod assemblies. The robot has multiple cameras to give operators different angles to view the work area with. It’s not clear now the radiated robot and the debris it collects will be disposed of after the job though.
The need to clean up Fukushima, and the fact that the area is too highly irradiated for humans to work has led to a big boom in robotic development to aid in this sort of situation.
Today on In Case You Missed It: Space X's latest Falcon 9 autonomous landing almost went according to plan. The rocket's satellite made it into orbit and the first stage booster set down on its drone barge but promptly fell over and exploded on acc...
There's been another delay in the plan to clean up the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Japan Times reported today that the country's government approved another revision to the cleanup schedule that will push removal of radioactive fuel rods from reacto...
Fukushima's ill-fated nuclear power plant may still be so dangerous that it kills robots, but residents are trickling back as officials decide that radiation levels are safe in some areas. But are they safe enough that you'd never have to worry abou...
The second robot Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent into Fukushima's unit 2 reactor also failed to finish its mission. Earlier this month, the cameras of the first "scorpion" robot that ventured into the reactor malfunctioned after two hours d...
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) wasn't kidding when it said the radiation levels inside Fukushima's nuclear reactor are the highest they've been since its meltdown in 2011. It had to pull out the robot it sent in to find the exact location of melted...
Five years after an earthquake-triggered tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, there's still a tremendous amount of cleanup work left. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which runs the plant, has managed to clean out spent fuel...
Today on In Case You Missed It: Space X's latest Falcon 9 autonomous landing almost went according to plan. The rocket's satellite made it into orbit and the first stage booster set down on its drone barge but promptly fell over and exploded on acc...