Toshiba Robotics to undertake dismantling of Fukushima nuclear power plant

The Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has been completely destroyed. A 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred that year, followed by a tsunami with a wave height of 15 meters that swept the nuclear power plant, completely overwhelmed the nuclear power plant's defense system, cut off the backup power supply, and caused the three nuclear reactors in the nuclear power plant to melt. According to engadget reports on January 19, the Japanese government plans to gradually dismantle components of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant next year, the first of which is the 566 nuclear fuel rods of the damaged Unit 3 reactor. The Japanese government did not intend to risk the lives of technicians to go to the reactor where the nuclear leakage problem occurred, but remote-controlled robots produced by Toshiba Corporation took on the task. Designed and produced by Toshiba, the robot can squat on a cooling pool and use a pair of robotic arms to remove reactor debris from the water, while a third robotic arm on the robot's body will cut the debris to size it can carry. When all debris has been cleaned, robots will remove the nuclear fuel rods from the reactor assembly. Toshiba engineers expect the operation to reduce the radiation index of the Unit 3 reactor to 1 millisievert per hour, which is still high but much better than the current radiation index. It is not the first time that Toshiba has contributed to the post-disaster clean-up of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. In 2012, the company designed a quadruped robot to perform reconnaissance work during the restoration of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.