If Robots Can’t Survive Radiation Exposure, What Will?

Tattered flag in Fukushima, Japan. The tsunami that hit japan in 2011 caused serious damage to the country, including the destruction of a nuclear power plant. Radiation leakage continues to be a problem that even robots cannot combat. How, then, can we respond to nuclear emergencies safely?

In 2011, one of the worst tsunamis on record hit Japan. Nearly 16,000 people were confirmed dead. Of the survivors, 230,000 were displaced, and many still live in temporary housing. Perhaps the most unfortunate result of the attack was the destruction of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant. The plant, which is run by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), leaked an estimated few hundred tons of nuclear fuel rods.

The destruction of the plant has serious ecological consequences. It is believed that at least a small portion of the radioactive waste has come into contact with the ocean by way of contaminated groundwater that connects the plant to the coast coastal region. And while TEPCO built a ‘wall of ice’ along the edge of the seabed to prevent further leakage, the cleanup is projected to take 30 to 40 years.

The level of radiation exposure at the site is too high for humans to withstand. In fact, an estimated 8,000 workers bustle around the facility removing debris and pouring water into radiated reactors just to keep the temperature down. The damage done to the reactors allowed the nuclear fuel rods to burn through the specialized containment vessels, meaning that not only has tons of nuclear waste been released, but also, no one is quite sure of the rods’ location.

To solve the issue, TEPCO spent two years developing a robot to locate the missing rods. The bot was equipped with a live camera feed, and was programmed to swim underwater to offset any radiation damage. The heat from the reactors was so strong, however, it melted the machine’s wires before any valuable footage was recorded. TEPCO was disappointed and revealed it will take another two years to develop a new robot.

While the power company devises a new plan, the challenge poses a real concern to global safety. If such an event was to happen again, how could emergency responders combat radiation that is even too strong for robots? The Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have stated the United States strives to use infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters, so a similar event does not occur in the U.S. One such idea includes back-up containment vessels to withstand the heat emitted by nuclear reactors. Still, this does not solve the issue of what to do in Japan now.

The truth is, no one knows what to do. Japan has been heavily criticized for neglecting to safeguard against natural disasters and emergencies. And while it’s helpful for preventative planning, this kind of thinking serves only to point the blame, and offers no solution to decrease the significant ecological damage that resulted from the incident. If robots are the answer, the technology has to be developed much further to withstand heat and radiation of nuclear waste. Until that time comes, we can only wait. (I say that often, we wait too much.)

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