TEPCO deploys robot arm at Fukushima plant after four delays

Tokyo Electric Power Company began the third attempt to extract fuel debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's Unit 2 reactor on October 2, deploying a large robot arm after four delays. The operation marks a key step in the plant's decommissioning process. The 22-meter, 4.6-ton robot arm, developed at a cost of about 7.8 billion yen, was originally scheduled for deployment in 2021 but faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and technical issues. TEPCO President Akira Ono expressed relief at reaching this stage, noting the arm will gather 3D data inside the containment vessel to support future large-scale debris removal. The robot arm's deployment follows two earlier extractions using a smaller "fishing rod" robot in 2024 and 2025, which collected about 0.9 grams of debris total. TEPCO aims to complete the current phase, including route preparation and data collection, within three to four months before attempting to extract several grams of debris.