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Article: U.S.-made robot to explore Chernobyl sarcophagus.(Originated from Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- July 15, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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They've detonated bombs, crawled through tiny shafts in Egypt's Great Pyramid and climbed rocks on Mars. Just about anywhere the human mind wants to go, but the human body cannot, robots have been called into service.
Now, in a laboratory in Pittsburgh, one of these mechanical foot soldiers is being prepared for the toughest of endurance tests: exploring a sealed, radiation-hot chamber at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
It's been 12 years since a steam explosion blew the lid off the Unit 4 reactor at Chernobyl, killing 31 people and spewing tons of radioactive material into the air. Over the reactor's ruins lies a hastily constructed ...