Japan's TEPCO to conduct reactor endoscopy for 2nd time

Tokyo Electric Power Company will begin on Monday a two-day endoscopic examination of the inside of a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In a similar operation using an industrial endoscope in January, the utility obtained images of parts of the walls and pipes inside a containment vessel of the No.2 reactor, Japan's (NHK World) website reported. But it was unable to see the condition of the contaminated water at the bottom of the vessel because the fiber-optic line was not long enough. It is necessary to determine the state of the containment vessels before moving ahead toward the total shutdown of the plant. This time, a longer line will be inserted to monitor the surface conditions and temperature of the contaminated water of the No.2 reactor. A dosimeter will also be put inside to measure radiation levels on the walls and about one meter away from them. TEPCO said through the operation it wants to confirm that the amount of fuel that melted and fell to the bottom of the containment vessels is being cooled properly. It said the monitoring of the radiation levels will be useful for the development of equipment needed for the complete shutdown of the reactors.