Robots report high radiation levels in damaged reactors (Fukushima Daiichi)

[Octafish]

Source: CNN

By Matt Smith, CNNApril 18, 2011 8:11 a.m. EDT

Tokyo (CNN) -- Remote-controlled robots and workers controlling them have recorded high levels of radiation inside and around two reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, safety officials said Monday.

The U.S.-built robot probes measured radiation doses as high as 57 millisieverts inside the housing for reactor No. 3 and up to 49 millisieverts inside the No. 1 reactor building, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported. Levels found between the double doors of the airlocks of the reactor buildings were much higher -- 270 millisieverts in the case of reactor No. 1 and 170 millsieverts in No. 3, the agency said.

By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives a dose of about 3 millisieverts per year. Emergency standards for plant workers battling the month-old nuclear disaster limit their annual exposure to 250 millisieverts, while a CT scan produces just under 7 and a chest X-ray delivers a one-time dose of about .05 millisieverts.

SNIP...

The robots were inserted Sunday in an attempt to determine the conditions inside the No. 1 and 3 reactor buildings, which were blown apart in massive hydrogen explosions in the first days of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The cooling systems for Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-3 were knocked out by the March 11 tsunami that struck northern Japan, causing the reactor cores to overheat, spewing huge amounts of radioactive contamination across the surrounding area.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/18/japan.nuclear.reactors/

---

It won't be robots that fix Fukushima. It's going to take labor.

[Octafish]

1. ''U.S.-made robots ...look like drafting lamps on treads''

More from AP/Toronto Globe and Mail:



Robots find high radiation inside Japanese nuclear plant

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Tokyo— The Associated Press
Published Monday, Apr. 18, 2011 5:08AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Apr. 18, 2011 6:52AM EDT

Readings Monday from robots that 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 data for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant – collected by U.S.-made robots that look like drafting lamps on treads – do not alter plans for stabilizing the complex by year's end under a “road map” released by the plant operator Sunday.

SNIP...

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

The robots were set to investigate Unit 2 later Monday.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/robots-find-high-radiation-inside-japanese-nuclear-plant/article1989096/

[lostnfound]

2. Per hour, per second, per what?

The absence of time units in so many of these news stories is frustrating.

[thereismore]

5. Exactly my point below! nt

[thereismore]

3. I fucking hate this. When are journalists going to learn that radiation units are mSv/h, not mSv? nt

[psychopomp]

6. If it is mSv/h, are you also not surprised that it isn't higher?

I'd expected it to be at least one or two sieverts.

[CJvR]

4. Without a time frame...

...that information is effectively useless. It's like saying something is five degrees warmer. Warmer than what?

If those doses are the year exposure equivalent or the hour dosis or that the robot got in the five minutes before the radiation fried it's CPU is marginally important.

[mysterysoup]

7. It's per hour.

The radiation level inside the troubled Nos. 1 and 3 reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was up to about 57 millisieverts per hour as of Sunday, data obtained by remote- controlled robots showed Monday.

http://www.houseofjapan.com/local/up-to-57-millisieverts-h-measured

[AtheistCrusader]

8. That's a hell of a lot lower than I expected.

Still, what's the story with Reactor 2? That's the one with the suspected breached Suppression Pool (part of the containment)

[Octafish]

9. Robot finds sauna-like conditions around damaged reactor

The latest I can find:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/19/japan.nuclear.reactors/?hpt=T2