Robot detects high radiation in Japan Nuke plants

TOKYO-Lectures Monday of a robot that two crippled buildings in Japan's tsunami flooded-nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month entered displayed a harsh environment still too radioactive for employees.

Nuclear officials said the radiation readings for unit 1 and unit 3 on the tsunami flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant does nothing to change plans for stabilizing the complex end of the year under a "road map" released by the operator plant Sunday.

Workers are not gone into the two reactor buildings since the first days after the cooling of the plant were destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on 11 March. Hydrogen explosions in two buildings in the first few days their roofs destroyed and littered them with radioactive waste.

U.S.-created a robot that looks like a lamp drafting on Security Alliance treads introduced the two buildings Sunday and took readings of temperature, pressure and radioactivity. More data must be collected and radioactivity should be further reduced before workers are allowed inside, said Takahashi Nishiyama of Japan of nuclear and industrial safety agency.

"It is a harsh environment for people to work within," said Nishiyama.

It is still possible, he said, to reach plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. of the objective of achieving a cold shutdown of the plant within six to nine months as outlined in a timetable, the company announced on Sunday.

"I believe that we must be creative to come up with ways to achieve our goals," said Nishiyama. "I still think the plan ... is so necessary if we can get at the moment."

TEPCO official Takeshi Makigami said the robots should pave the way for workers to the building again.

"What robots can do is limited, so ultimately, people need to enter the buildings," said Makigami.

The robot was set to investigate unit 2 later Monday.

Since work within the plant continues to reduce radiation levels and steel leaking into the sea, said the Ministry of defence that it would send about 2,500 soldiers to the hundreds of police, equipped with protective suits, looking for bodies in tsunami debris around the plant.

About 1,000 bodies are believed to be buried in the muddy piles of broken homes, cars and fishing boats. As of Sunday, searchers had located 66 bodies and recovered 63, police said.

The combined earthquake and tsunami is still more than 27,000 people dead or missing.

It is used in the plant, called packbots, robots are made by iRobot of Bedford, Massachusetts company. Travel on miniature tank-like treads, the devices open closed doors and the inside of the reactor buildings, come back with radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour within unit 1 and a maximum of 57 millisieverts per hour within unit 3 examined.

The legal limit for nuclear workers was more than doubled since the crisis began to 250 millisieverts. The u.s. Environmental Protection Agency recommends an evacuation after an incident 10 millisieverts releases of radiation, and workers in the nuclear industry from the us an upper bound of 50 millisieverts per year are allowed. Doctors say radiation sickness set at 1000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

The robots, along with remote controlled miniature helicopters, TEPCO to photograph and measurements of conditions in and around the factory to take while minimizing the exposure to radiation and other hazards enabled.

TEPCO's plan for ending the crisis, drawn up on the order of the Government, is intended as a first step towards some of the tens of thousands of residents evacuated from the area around the company Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to return to their homes.

It pulled a lackluster response Monday, though, when polls showed public support for the Government treatment of recent disasters in the country are diminishing.

Those forced to flee due to leakage of radiation from the plant are frustrated that their exile not expire soon. And officials acknowledge that unforeseen complications, or even another natural disaster, could set the timetable back even further.

"Well, this year has been lost," said Kenji Matsueda, 49, who lives in an evacuation center in Fukushima after being forced from his home 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the plant. "I have no idea what I will do. Nine months is a long time. And it could be longer. I don't think they really know. "

Pressure on the Government and TEPCO to solve Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident has worked, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing calls for his resignation.

"You should be bending your head in apology. Masashi Waki, a lawmaker of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, cried you clearly have no leadership, "during an intense grilling can and members of his Cabinet in Parliament Monday.

"I sincerely apologize for what happened," said may, the Government has already stressed that the possible does to unprecedented disasters.

TEPCO President, Masataka the Shimizu, looked visibly ill at ease as legislators heckled and taunted him.


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