Over seven years have passed , but the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant remains stuck in a radioactive limbo land . TheTokyo Electric Power Company , or TEPCO , has released sword fresh images from inside the heart of the nuclear power plant , taken as part of the company ’s monumental clean - up task .
As you’re able to see from the serial of images , it is n’t looking too salubrious . Much of this harm was most probably due to the intense flack thatcontinue to actuate upthroughout the fuel pools in the plant ’s worst affected areas . Equally , the initial meltdown saw a flurry of aggressivehydrogen - aura explosionsinside the reactors .
Atmospheric readingstaken insidethe plant have shown that many of the reactors are still riddled with crazily gamy levels of radiation . Back in February , nuclear reactor 2 even give readings as gamy as 530 sieverts an hour . For position , a individual Elvis of 1 sievert would be enough to give you feeling ill with radiation sickness and at an increase risk of cancer .
Radiation levels as high-pitched as this mean enceinte parts of the flora are still not safe for humans , so these picture were taken on January 19 , 2018 , using a specialized television camera attached to a long rod lowered into the reactor . TEPCO often rely on remote - control robots to take photographs and document their decommissioning computer programme . However , even their toughened robots can only subsist an vulnerability of up to 1,000 sieverts , so at 530 sieverts per hour , theywould be destroyedin just two hours .
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl meltdown of 1986 . It come after a 9.0 - magnitude earthquake triggered a 15 - meter ( 49 - human foot ) tsunami off the north - east coast of Japan on March 11 , 2011 . The flood tide of water prompted the plant ’s backup power provision to buckle . With no electrical energy , those working at the industrial plant were unable to pump body of water into the reactors to sufficiently cool down them down . This culminated in three of its six reactors overheating , leading to nuclear meltdown , hydrogen - air explosion , and the release of radioactive material .
International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning / TEPCO
