New images from an underwater robot may provide evidence of significant melted nuclear fuel deposits on the floor of one of the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plant's reactors. This could mark the first time signs of melted fuel have been found since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Japanese nuclear plant.
A report from the Associated Press detailed the results of a three-day investigation conducted on the Fukushima plant's Unit 3 reactor. According to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the company's robot was able to discover "large amounts" of solidified lava, with thickness estimated to be around the three-foot (one-meter) mark.
In a brief statement quoted by BBC News, a TEPCO spokesman said that the melted nuclear fuel could be Fukushima's first "highly likely" evidence of such a substance since the 2011 disaster.
"There is a high possibility that the solidified objects are mixtures of melted metal and fuel that fell from the vessel."
Further detailing the sightings, BBC News wrote that some of the possible nuclear fuel deposits were similar in appearance to icicles, as they hung around a control rod mechanism found at the bottom of Unit 3's pressure vessel. TEPCO representatives added that fuel rod assemblies found in that vessel had "melted into a puddle" after the 2011 tsunami, before burning through the bottom.
