On March 11, 2011 a 9.0 earthquake struck 80 miles off the coast of Japan.  It was such a strong earthquake that the earth’s axis was shifted 4 inches and the coast of Japan was moved 8 feet.  All of the 11 reactors and 4 nuclear power plants in the region were able to safely shut down automatically when the earthquake hit.  Then, about an hour later a tsunami hit Fukushima, home of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  The two 50 foot waves that barreled over protective seawalls led to what has been deemed the worst nuclear disaster in history.  This disaster was ranked a Level 7 event classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale.  The only other event that comes close to this was the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, though Fukushima is considered to be far worse.

The Japanese government has only begun to scratch the surface on cleaning up the mess left behind at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  It is estimated that it will take upwards of 40 years and $75.7 billion to fully dismantle and clean the facility.  The main reason it will take so long and be so expensive is that the facility is no longer safe for humans to work in for more than a few moments.  There is so much radiation trapped inside the rubble of the plant that it could kill workers in some areas in a matter of weeks after just a few moments exposure.  To get the job done experts have turned to drones and robots to safely go where humans cannot.

In 2016, the Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development was built about a half an hour away from the nuclear plant.  It was built with the purpose to deal with unique circumstances found at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Inside this center is a virtual reality simulation of the Fukushima plant.  It allows researchers to test out new ideas and equipment in a safe, controlled environment before bringing their ideas into the destroyed plant.  In August 2018 Hitachi was awarded a contract to build the Fukushima Robot Test Field (RTF).  The Fukushima RTF is a facility where engineers and scientists can come together to find ways to use drones and other autonomous and controlled robotics to solve some of the issues faced in the wake of the nuclear disaster.  Engineers have come up with many robotics, but only some have had any success.

The problem is that much of the robotics being designed have components that are far to sophisticated to withstand the extreme elements found inside the plant.  The radiation and heat just melts through the machinery used to gather information.  So far the furthest any of the machines built have gotten into the plant is several feet.  But those several feet have still provided researchers with a starting point on data collection.  Though some feel it is time for the Japanese to start thinking outside of the box when it comes to the drones and robots they are designing for this mission.

Lake Barret used to work at the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management at the US Department of Energy now works for Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company).  He feels that much of the efforts being made at the Fukushima RTF are being held back by the thinking of those that work there.  He feels there needs to be a shift to bring the environment closer to a Silicon Valley mentality.  “Where’s the long-haired kid with the body piercings?” he says. “You got to have one or two of them.”

For now it seems that Tepco is moving in that direction as they open use of both the Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development and the Fukushima RTF to educate more people.  The centers are being filled with VR and physical representations of different aspects of the nuclear plant.  Participants are being encouraged to test out any and all theories to get drones and robots successfully into the area.  Kuniaki Kawabata, principal researcher at the Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development is hopeful that these centers will help educated and find the answers they are looking for.  “We must educate and do some skills transfer from the current generation to the next generation,” he says. “We must attract good students to get them to come.”  After all, this is a project that will take decades to solve.