Robots to retrieve radioactive sandbags at Fukushima power plant

Robots will begin moving sandbags that were used to absorb radiation-contaminated water after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster as soon as next week, a spokesman for the plant operator said on March 21.

- AFP

TOKYO -

Tepco, the operator of the stricken Japanese power plant, said the bags on underground floors of two buildings have been left untouched following the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Radiation levels on the sandbags' surface are as high as 4.4 sieverts per hour, which means "humans can die if they approach" them, Tepco spokesman Tatsuya Matoba told AFP.