A robot has been deployed for the first time to survey the condition of melted fuel debris inside a stricken nuclear reactor in Japan, the plant's operator says.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, on Friday sent the robot inside the containment vessel of a reactor at the plant in Fukushima that suffered a catastrophic meltdown four years ago.
Tepco is looking to obtain data on radiation levels and temperature as well as footage of the upper part of the vessel from the deployment of the remote-controlled robot inside reactor 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
The plant suffered meltdowns at three of its six units after a tsunami swept through the complex in March 2011.
Nuclear fuel inside reactors 1 to 3 is believed to have melted through the reactor pressure vessels and has been accumulating in the outer containers.
The details, however, remain unknown more than four years after the nuclear disaster because of extremely high levels of radiation inside the three units.
The robot - 60 centimetres in length and 9.5 centimetres in height - is equipped with cameras, a thermometer and dosimeter and can function properly only for around 10 hours under high levels of radiation, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning said.
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