I asked myself this question this morning, and this author asks it in this article:

^Nothing is more exasperating than reading reports about all the things that can't be done at Fukushima - fixing valves, pumping water, ascertaining damage, dousing spent-fuel pools - because of heat, radiation, or the risk of explosion. Last year, BP plugged an oil leak a mile under the Gulf of Mexico with the aid of remotely operated vehicles. Why doesn't Japan, the world's most robotically advanced country, have unmanned vehicles on hand to do simple but dangerous jobs at a radiation-contaminated nuclear power plant? Ten minutes ago, I got a newsletter from the unmanned-vehicles industry about all the cool things robots are doing to help Japan. It has not a word about the nuclear reactors. That's disgraceful.^

We all watched the robots at work for BP on live TV. They were doing complex work and repairs under hostile conditions. Shouldn't ANY nuclear facility have a few repair robots on hand for some things where it's just too hot for humans?