Nuclear plant cleanup personnel will rely on US-made robots to help in monitoring the radiation level, temperature, and other conditions inside the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Takeshi Makigami, an official of the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)., which operates the beleaguered nuclear facility, said that it will still be humans who will do the complex engineering required to stop the radiation but it will be the Packbot who will be deployed first to check where it will be safe for the engineers to come in.

According to Shogu Fukuda, TEPCO spokesman, it is only now that the robots will be used because the crew needed several weeks to learn how to operate the sophisticated device. At present, only one of the two PackBots have been deployed, said Minoru Ogoda, an official of the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), which is the company charged with recovery efforts. This will be the deepest entry by both man and machine into the plant since it was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Manufactured by Bedford-based iRobot, the PackBot has been used in other disaster zones. It was utilized after the September 11 terrorist attack to search for survivors trapped in the rubbles of the collapsed World Trade Center. Likewise, it was used to disarm roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. For domestic purposes, iRobot has manufactured the disc-shaped Roomba vacuum cleaner robot.

According to Fukuda, the company had not intended to use robots in the nuclear plant until iRobot suggested its use. The company was offering the two PackBots for free, so he does not have an idea how much iRobot charges for its use. Currently, workers are being trained to use the heavy-duty type Warrior. British defense contractor QinetiQ Group PLC has also offered four robots, which are not yet being utilized.

While Japan is also known for its sophisticated robotics technology, most of it are developed for use in households instead of disaster recovery. Shuji Hashimoto, an applied physics professor who is the Director of the Humanoid Robotics Institute of Tokyo’s Waseda University, was not surprised with the development saying that the United States manufacture robots for use in disaster situations since the military funds these developments for war zones. On the other hand, Japan’s military is prohibited by its post World War II constitution to self defense and activities such as UN-led peacekeeping missions.

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