TOKYO — A pair of robots sent to explore buildings inside Japan’s crippled nuclear reactor came back Monday with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
Still, officials remained hopeful they can stick to their new “road map” for cleaning up the radiation leak and stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi plant by year’s end so they can begin returning tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes.
“Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I’m sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the road map,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Officials said Monday that radiation had spiked in a water tank in Unit 2, and contaminated water was discovered in other areas of the plant. They also described in detail for the first time the damage to fuel in three troubled reactors, saying pellets had melted.
That damage — sometimes referred to as a partial meltdown — had already been widely assumed, but the confirmation, along with the continued release of radiation from other areas, serves to underscore how long and difficult the cleanup process will be.
The robots, which resemble drafting lamps on tanklike treads, are made by the Bedford, Mass., company iRobot, which also makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner.
Some evacuees are moving out of school gyms into temporary housing, including inns at hot springs.
“The government has asked us to be ready to take in as many as 200 evacuees for the next four months at least,” said Masaki Hata at the Yoshikawaya Hot Springs Inn.
Michiaki Niitsuma, a 27-year-old office worker, said he was glad to have a comfortable place to stay while he waited to go home.
“My kids got sick in the shelter,” he said. “It was cold. It’s much better here. It’s a relief.”
