A device has retrieved a small amount of nuclear fuel debris during trial work to remove debris from a reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima No. 1 plant, the company has said.
It is expected to take about a week to finish collecting the portion of debris.
If successful, it will be the first time for nuclear fuel debris to be removed from any of the three reactors at the plant that experienced meltdowns following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
The trial work began just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
A claw-like tool attached to the tip of a telescopic collection device was lowered toward debris at the bottom of the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor at the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The remotely operated device retrieved a small amount of debris at 10:30 a.m.
Tepco was set to pull out the removal device from the containment vessel Thursday or later and put the debris in a transport container.
If radiation levels are higher than expected, the debris may be put back into the containment vessel to avoid workers being exposed to radiation.
If they are not higher than expected, however, the collected debris will be analyzed at a facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
About 880 tons of nuclear fuel debris are believed to sit inside the meltdown-stricken No. 1 to No. 3 reactors.
Removing the debris is viewed as the most difficult part of the process of decommissioning the Fukushima plant.
Tepco initially planned to begin the removal work in 2021.
It started in September this year about three years behind schedule due chiefly to delays in the development of the device and problems with preparing for the work.
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