At Japan’s Fukushima, a high-stakes recovery of deadly radioactive debris resumes

The sample-return mission, initially scheduled to begin on August 22, was suspended when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-metre (5-foot) add-on pipes to push in and manoeuvre the robot were in the wrong order and could not be corrected within the time limit for their radiation exposure, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) said.

The pipes were to be used to push the robot inside and pull it back out when it finished. Once inside the vessel, the robot is operated remotely from a safer location.

The robot, nicknamed “telesco”, can extend up to about 22 metres (72 feet), including the pipes pushing it from behind, to reach its target area to collect a fragment from the surface of the melted fuel mound using a device equipped with tongs that hang from the of the robot.