TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said Saturday that it has extracted nuclear fuel debris from a reactor at its meltdown-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan.

The plant operator retrieved from the containment vessel of the plant’s No. 2 reactor a device holding a small amount of fallen debris, as part of an experimental removal work.

It is the first time that nuclear fuel debris has been removed from a reactor containment vessel since the plant in Fukushima Prefecture suffered a meltdown following the March 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami.

TEPCO said that it caught debris on Wednesday using a claw-like tool attached to the tip of a retrieval device shaped like a fishing rod. On Saturday, the company spent about an hour pulling the device out of the containment vessel, and placed the whole device inside a sealed container box by 10 a.m.

The extracted debris is about 5 millimeters in length and is believed to weigh several grams.

The company plans to measure the debris’ radiation levels after the weekend, and put the debris in a special container for transport if no issues are detected. If radiation levels are higher than expected, the debris may be put back into the containment vessel.

The collected debris is slated to be transported to a facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in the town of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, for detailed analysis. The result will be used for research linked to the full-fledged removal of the roughly 880 tons of nuclear debris believed to be inside the Fukushima plant’s No. 1 to No. 3 reactors.

TEPCO initially planned to conduct the experimental removal work in 2021, but it was postponed by about three years due to delays in the development of necessary devices overseas and other preparations. The work began in September but was briefly halted due to camera issues.

JIJI Press