Melted Fuel Hunt Marks Advance in Japan's 40-Year Atomic Cleanup

Submarine robot’s images may prove to be Fukushima milestone
Pictures to help Tepco decide how to remove melted fuel

Branch-like material, top left, likely to be nuclear fuel debris is shown in this photo taken July 21, 2017, at the No. 3 reactor of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.
Source: International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning/Kyodo News via Getty Images

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By Stephen Stapczynski

July 24, 2017 at 2:09 AM UTC

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Japan’s likely discovery of melted fuel inside the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant is seen as a critical step in hastening the $72 billion, 40-year cleanup of one of the worst atomic disasters in history.

Images released on Saturday by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest utility and owner of the plant, showed for the first time what is likely melted fuel at the bottom of the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at Fukushima. Pictures released Friday showed fuel possibly hanging from the top of the pressure vessel inside the same reactor.