Development of ROV system to explore fuel debris in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Kamada, So*; Kato, Michio*; Nishimura, Kazuya*; Nancekievill, M.*; Watson, S.*; Lennox, B.*; Jones, A.*; Joyce, M. J.*; Okumura, Keisuke ; Katakura, Junichi*

As a technology development to investigate the distribution of submerged fuel debris in the primary containment vessel (PCV) of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, we are conducting development experiments of sonar system to be mounted in a compact ROV. The experiments were conducted in two types of water tanks with different depths, simulating the PCV, using sonar with different sizes, ultrasonic frequencies, and beam scanning method, and simulated fuel debris. As a result, we characterized the shape discrimination performance of the simulated debris, and the noise due to multi-path in narrow closed space.