A remote-controlled robot called "Packbot", which has capabilities including maneuvering through buildings, taking images, and measuring radiation levels, opens a door at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) Co.'s crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant No.3 reactor building in Fukushima, northern Japan, April 17, 2011
apanese nuclear regulators say robots have obtained the first radiation readings from inside the stricken Fukushima power plant's tsunami-damaged reactor buildings.
The officials at Japan's nuclear safety agency said Monday that readings from inside the plant's number one and number three reactors show a "harsh" environment that would make it impossible for repair crews to go inside the buildings for more than brief periods.
At the highest reading detected, a worker would receive the maximum allowable dosage of radiation in about four and a half hours. Officials with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the plant, said they will study the data to determine what kind of work can be done inside the plant.
TEPCO officials said the finding will not affect their goal - announced Sunday - of safely shutting down all six reactors within six to nine months. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a parliament session Monday that his government will do all it can to help the company meet the target.
The two remote-controlled robots, provided by the United States, were sent into the buildings Sunday to measure the temperature, radiation and oxygen levels. NHK Television said a robot was being sent into the number two reactor building Monday.
The on-site inspections inside the buildings are the first since hydrogen explosions blew the roofs off two of the buildings shortly after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
On Sunday, TEPCO officials presented their long-awaited roadmap for shutting down the reactors, which have been leaking radiation into the atmosphere and nearby ocean since their cooling systems were destroyed by the tsunami.
The first step in the plan calls for reducing radiation leaks and removing radioactive water from in and around the reactor buildings over the next three months. TEPCO says it will take another three to six months to fully bring the radiation under control and achieve what is known as a cold shutdown of the reactors.
The announcement brought little comfort to residents who have been evacuated from homes within 20 kilometers of the plant, many of whom remain housed in school gymnasiums. Public frustration with the slow pace of resolving the crisis was reflected in three opinion polls published Monday, which showed more than two-thirds of Japanese disapprove of the government's handling of the crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed pledges of support in the crisis during a visit to Tokyo Sunday. More than 20,000 U.S. troops have helped deliver relief supplies to tsunami victims along Japan's hard-hit northeast coast while nuclear power experts have traveled to Japan to offer advice.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.