In the photo" An aerial picture of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its tanks containing radioactive water in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant said Monday it would put a probe into a damaged reactor this week to test radioactive debris cleanup.
Tepco wants to extract a small sample of the 880 tonnes of radioactive material thought to remain within tsunami-damaged nuclear plant reactors.
To decommission the facility, the sample will be examined for signs of reactor damage and dangerous materials.
"We will proceed carefully by putting safety as our highest priority," a Tepco spokesman said Monday.
Tepco developed robots to work inside the rubble because to its high radiation levels.
Its removal has been the biggest obstacle in the decades-long Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility decommissioning process.
The tsunami on March 11, 2011, knocked down cooling systems and melted three of Fukushima's six reactors, the greatest nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
In three Fukushima plant units, fuel and other material melted and hardened as radioactive "fuel debris".
In February, Tepco sent two mini-drones and a "snake-shaped robot" inside one of the three nuclear reactors to prepare for evacuation.
The newest robotic-armed probe should reach radioactive debris within the reactor in a week and return with the sample next month.
Japan started dumping devastated plant effluent into the Pacific Ocean over a year ago.
Japan claims the release is safe, and the UN atomic agency agrees, but China and Russia have prohibited fish imports.|BGNES
