Nuclear plant radiation still too high

Readings from a robot which entered two crippled buildings at Japan’s tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month displayed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.

Nuclear officials said the radiation readings for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant do not alter plans for stabilising the complex by the end of the year under a “road map” released by the plant operator yesterday.

Workers have not gone inside the two reactor buildings since the first days after the plant’s cooling systems were damaged by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Hydrogen explosions in both buildings in the first few days destroyed their roofs and littered them with radioactive debris.

A US-made robot haltingly entered the two buildings yesterday and took readings for temperature, pressure and radioactivity. More data must be collected and radioactivity must be further reduced before workers are allowed inside, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

“It’s a harsh environment for humans to work inside,” he said.

It is still possible, he added, to achieve plant operator Tokyo Electric Power’s (Tepco’s) goal of achieving a cold shutdown of the plant within six to nine months as laid out in a timetable the company announced yesterday.

“I do believe we must be creative to come up with ways to achieve our goals,” Mr Nishiyama said. “I still think the plan... is as appropriate as we can get at the moment.”

Tepco official Takeshi Makigami said the robots must pave the way for workers to be able to re-enter the building.

“What robots can do is limited, so eventually, people must enter the buildings,” he said.

The robot was set to investigate Unit 2 later today.