#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 3 TIP Room Survey Shows Door Damage, High Radiation Levels

The robot Quince 2 and human co-workers surveyed the TIP Room of Reactor 3. Unlike in the TIP Room of Reactor 2 (survey result announced on March 22, 2012), the radiation inside the Reactor 3 TIP Room was much higher. The door to the Reactor 3's TIP Room was blown out, making it impossible for Quince 2 to enter the room.

So, instead of Quince 2, human workers entered the room to measure the radiation level just beyond the broken door. No further measurement was done inside the room, probably because the level beyond the broken door was rather high (45 millisieverts/hour).

However, the visual inspection beyond the door by the human workers shows no notable damage to the equipment inside the room, according to the TEPCO's press release.

TIP stands for Traversing Incore Probe. There are gamma-sensitive and neutron-sensitive TIP sensors available. TEPCO's diagram shows the Room houses neutron-sensitive TIP sensors.

From TEPCO's press release, Japanese only for now (5/24/2012), on the survey done on May 23, 2012 (I put the English labels):

Needless to say, the radiation levels outside the TIP Room in Reactor 3 building are much higher than in Reactor 2. The equipment hatch shield plug area shows very high radiation levels, with the highest at 870 millisieverts/hour. However, in several locations along the guide rails in front of the plug, Packbot was measuring 1.6 sievert/hour radiation at 10 to 20 centimeters from the floor level last November.

Also note the very high humidity on the first page above. The equipment hatch shield plug, now we know, has been open.

For reference, here's the summary of the Reactor 2 TIP Room radiation levels, from TEPCO's press release on 3/22/2012:

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