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Robots working inside the buildings at Fukushima Daiichi NPS Rosemary & Sakura
-Images taken inside the Unit 1 Reactor building by the robots-

There are many areas of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that are still too dangerous for humans to enter due to high radiation levels. Robots are therefore being utilized to perform aspects of the decommissioning work on behalf of humans.

Various types of robots have been introduced so far. Here we will look at two: Rosemary and Sakura. These robots work together inside the Fukushima Daiichi NPS Unit 1 Reactor building to primarily inspect radioactive sources and so forth. Below is some video taken inside the reactor building and of the robots as they conduct their inspection.

Both robots were originally developed by the Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture. IRID (Hitachi-GE) later modified them with support from the government to investigate dose rates inside the reactor building.

Rosemary is equipped with a special camera called a gamma camera (N-Visage) made in the UK to detect radiation dosage rates inside the reactor building. Rosemaryoperates this camera via a wireless system since it is not large enough to be equipped with an extension and retraction device for communication cables.

However, wireless communication is difficult to maintain inside the reactor building. Sakura supports Rosemary in a coordinated inspection effort inside the building by the robot pair, acting as a wireless transmission station.

The following footage was taken by Sakura of Rosemary, and vice-versa.
*Video is of low quality due to it being for work monitoring purposes. It has also been sped up x10 during the editing process.

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[Photos]
  • Rosemary

  • Sakura

【Videos】