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Experts have long said that what’s crucial for decommissioning is getting an image of the nuclear fuel after the March 2011 tsunami crippled backup generators at Fukushima Daiichi, setting off the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
No one knows where the molten fuel debris lies, and in what shape or state. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates Fukushima Dai-ichi, has said it likely sank to the bottom of the plant. But the fuel could have dropped even beyond.
Tadashi Yotsuyanagi, an official in charge of the muon project at Toshiba Corp., acknowledged radiation would be an obstacle for people doing the construction work to set up the walls. High exposure to radiation is unhealthy, sometimes fatal.
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But Yotsuyanagi acknowledged the technology would not be able to get the complete image toward the bottom of the reactor. He also said heavy radiation in the area would throw the sensors off, although that can be figured into the calculations of the scattered muons.
David Ireland, a professor who heads the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Glasgow, said muons may be the only way to probe inside atomic reactors.
“There are not really any other non-invasive options that will allow inspection,” he said in an email.
Read more at Technology to Look Inside Fukushima Reactors Faces Challenge
