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World

Toshiba's 'scorpion' robot will try to look at melted fuel inside wrecked Fukushima reactor

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    A robot developed by Toshiba Corp. is demonstrated at its laboratory in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. As Japan struggles in the early stages of decades-long cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Toshiba has developed the robot that raises its tail like a scorpion and collects data, and hopefully locate some of melted debris. The "scorpion" robot, which is 54 centimeters (21 inches) long when extended, has two cameras, LED lighting and a dosimeter, will be sent into the Unit 2 reactor in August to look. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) (The Associated Press)

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    CORRECTS TO LOCATION - A robot developed by Toshiba Corp. is demonstrated at its laboratory in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. As Japan struggles in the early stages of decades-long cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Toshiba has developed the robot that raises its tail like a scorpion and collects data, and hopefully locate some of melted debris. The "scorpion" robot, which is 54 centimeters (21 inches) long when extended, has two cameras, LED lighting and a dosimeter, will be sent into the Unit 2 reactor in August to look. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) (The Associated Press)

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    A robot developed by Toshiba Corp. is demonstrated its laboratory in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, Tuesday, June 30, 2015. As Japan struggles in the early stages of decades-long cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Toshiba has developed the robot that raises its tail like a scorpion and collects data, and hopefully locate some of melted debris. The "scorpion" robot, which is 54 centimeters (21 inches) long when extended, has two cameras, LED lighting and a dosimeter, will be sent into the Unit 2 reactor in August to look. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) (The Associated Press)

YOKOHAMA, Japan – A new robot that raises its tail like a scorpion is scheduled to look at melted nuclear fuel inside one of the three wrecked reactors in Japan.

Toshiba Corp. is co-developer of the "scorpion" crawler that was demonstrated Tuesday. The company says the robot will venture into Unit 2 reactor's primary containment vessel in August.

Officials hope the robot can get a glimpse of fuel in the pressure vessel in the middle. The fuel hasn't been located exactly and studied because of the fatally high radiation levels nearby.

The difficult work of decommissioning the Fukushima plant damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami will take decades.

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