Antinuclear

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to send this survey robot into a reactor containment vessel at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

A robot will be sent into the No. 2 reactor containment vessel at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to locate the melted fuel inside and assess its spread ahead of future retrieval.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced on Aug. 25 that it would undertake the difficult operation early next year at the soonest.

Under consideration for the work is a scorpion-shaped robot developed by Toshiba Corp., whose slender body allows it to pass through narrow openings. It is designed to raise its rear camera toward the front to capture images when it has arrived at a planned survey location.

The robot will crawl through an entrance into the No. 2 reactor containment vessel and travel along a rail to go deeper into its…