A remote-controlled aircraft monitoring the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan lost power today, making an emergency landing on top of a reactor building.
Bloomberg quoted a Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman as saying the 18-pound drone engineered by Honeywell is on top of unit 2, but that it likely did not damage the building. The cylindrically shaped T-Hawk helicopter had been taking samples of dust at the site when an unexplained engine problem required the emergency landing. TEPCO planned to inspect the aircraft with a crane and can use a backup drone until it is retrieved.
Unit 2 also saw the failure of a robot on the ground. Tepco announced the Quince robot became stuck on a staircase landing inside the unit Friday during an attempt to install a water gauge in its flooded basement where radiation doses are prohibitively high for workers.