By IANS,
Tokyo : A robot has been put into service to collect radiation data from a crippled Japanese nuclear plant hit by a tsunami last month, a media report said.
Radiation readings were collected from unit 1 and unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Workers had abandoned the reactor buildings after the plant’s cooling systems were wrecked by a quake and a tsunami March 11.
A US-made robot entered the two buildings Sunday and took readings for temperature, pressure and radioactivity, China Daily reported Monday.
The radiation level must be reduced before workers can enter the facility. More data must be collected from the plant, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s nuclear safety agency.
“It’s a harsh environment for humans to work inside,” he said.
Takeshi Makigami, an official of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said robots must pave the way for workers to be able to reenter the building. “What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings,” Makigami said.
The defence ministry said it will send about 2,500 soldiers to join hundreds of police personnel who are searching for bodies in tsunami debris around the plant.
About 1,000 bodies are thought to be buried under the piles of broken houses, cars and fishing boats. The 9-magnitude quake and tsunami left over 27,000 people dead or missing.
The robot called Packbots being used at the plant is made by Massachussetts company iRobot.