Japan electric company removes small debris from Fukushima nuclear plant

Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Japanese nuclear plant workers, for the first time, removed a small amount of melted fuel from one of the Fukushima Daiichi plant reactors damaged in the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, officials said on Thursday.

The debris in the No. 2 reactor amounted to a pebble-size substance weighing less than three grams. It is a small step in the continued cleanup of the site that has been more than a decade in the making.

Some 880 tons of fuel debris, which includes melted fuel rods and other material that eventually cooled and solidified in reactors No.1, No. 2, and No. 3 during the nuclear crisis, remain to be cleaned up.

"We believe we are approaching the stage of conducting full-scale decommissioning work," Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said, according to Kyodo News.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said the retrieval of the radioactive material was a demonstration of removing the debris. The material was placed inside a container and sealed for transportation, a representative said.

The debris is set to be taken to the research facility at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for an examination. Efforts to remove the debris started two months ago but a camera on the robotic arm failed. TEPCO halted operations until the camera was replaced.