Robot photos appear to show melted fuel at Fukushima reactor

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A remote-controlled robot has captured images of what appears to be mounds of nuclear fuel that melted and fell to the bottom of the most damaged reactor at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged cooling systems at the power plant, causing the meltdown of three reactor cores. Most of their highly radioactive fuel fell to the bottom of their containment vessels, making its removal extremely difficult. The plant operator says images taken by cameras on a small robot show broken structures, pipes and mounds of what appears to be melted fuel and other debris. It says further probes will be needed to confirm the objects in the images.