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The latest challenge at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is to remove a 20-ton piece of debris from a pool holding over 500 spent fuel rods.
The object is what remains of a fuel handling machine originally located above the surface of the water. The debris is preventing Tepco from removing the spent fuel rods to a safer location. It is the largest object requiring removal inside the power plant’s reactor No. 3, according to the company.
security cameras installed by the Israeli Magna BSP company are recording events from inside the nuclear plant.
Magna set up the security system about a year ago at the facility, which suffered extensive damage after the recent earthquake and tsunami.
The system includes cameras and a warning system that allows the plant's security staff to monitor anyone attempting to trespass onto the site or damage the perimeter fence.
But Magna's head, Haim Siboni, said the thermal cameras also have the ability to detect the presence of radioactive clouds in the air. "Using these special cameras, we can also identify radioactive clouds, due to the spectrum that our cameras can sense," Magna CEO Haim Siboni told The Jerusalem Post.
Launched in 2001, Magna is based in the southern Israeli city of Dimona. The defense security company specializes in producing and installing stereoscopic sensory and thermal imaging cameras. Siboni said that his company's cameras were probably not damaged in the quake and tsunami as they were placed high up.
Theoretically, Magna is able to gain remote access to the cameras at Fukushima. But because the Japanese government has not yet given them the right to do so, Magna has not yet seen the images being recorded there
This might be the piece of equipment they are talking about, but due to the damage it's hard to even recognize what it looked like originally:
originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: RickinVa
Do you suppose they think that those fuel racks are all nicely intact, separated as normal and not twisted and broken, having dropped most of their pulverized fuel material into the bottom? Surely, their aerial images should be quite clear about what awaits them in that pool
So previous attempts to remove it were unsuccessful. I don't like their plan to remove it, which uses only two cranes, because it seems to me they need three cranes for stability.
TEPCO has been working to remove the fuel handling machine from the spent fuel pool in parts. Previous attempts to retrieve debris from the spent fuel pool were halted after dislodging debris which fell back into the pool and oil was found to be leaking from some of the parts collected.