TOKYO: Robots will begin moving sandbags that were used to absorb radiation-contaminated water after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster as soon as next week, a spokesman for the plant operator said on Friday (Mar 21).
TEPCO, the operator of the stricken Japanese power plant, says the bags on underground floors of two buildings have been left untouched following the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Radiation levels on the sandbags’ surface are as high as 4.4 sieverts per hour, which means “humans can die if they approach” them, TEPCO spokesman Tatsuya Matoba told AFP.
Japanese media reports said there were 2,850 bags to be collected, a number which has not been confirmed by TEPCO, which says that they weigh 41.5 tonnes in total.
Two robots developed to collect the bags, one with a moving claw, were on Wednesday placed on the underground floors, Matoba said.
Workers will use them to “carefully” bring the sandbags out in an operation that TEPCO aims to finish by the end of the 2027 fiscal year.
The bags will then be placed inside containers for radioactive material and kept at a temporary storage site outside the buildings, the spokesman said.
