23/01/2014 16:58
Scientists use cosmic particles to see nuclear fuel in Fukushima reactors
Japanese scientists have invented a method that can help to determine just where the deadly radioactive nuclear fuel may have accumulated inside the battered reactors of the crippled Fukushima plant, the Voice of Russia reports.
Media say the technique uses cosmic particles known as muons. Muons are constantly falling onto the Earth and can easily pass through air, water, human bodies and most of other objects but change their trajectory when they stumble into radioactive particles, since substances with high density like nuclear fuel reduce their penetration.
Experiments have shown that by observing the trajectory of these cosmic rays scientists can essentially get a look inside reactors and even draft the map of their innards.
A team of scientists from the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), University of Tokyo, University of Tsukuba and Tokyo Metropolitan University monitored muons at three locations outside an off-line nuclear plant in the Ibaraki prefecture east of Tokyo.
Prof. Fumihiko Takasaki, a researcher with KEK, said they conducted the study carefully “as this enables you to find where nuclear fuel is anywhere in the world.”
Prof. Takasaki said this technology could help Tokyo Electric Power Co in the clean-up at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. He added the team was ready to provide TEPCO with their equipment should the operator consider this option.
A massive quake and ensuing tsunami in March 2011 knocked out cooling systems at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi power station, triggering a reactor meltdown that caused tons of poisonous radioactive waste to leak and contaminate land, air and the sea.