Toshiba unveiled a remote-controlled robot with tongs on Monday that it hopes will be able to probe the inside of one of the three damaged reactors at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and grip chunks of highly radioactive melted fuel. The device is designed to slide down an extendable 11-meter (36-foot) long pipe and touch melted fuel inside the Unit 2 reactor's primary containment vessel. The reactor was built by Toshiba and GE. An earlier probe carrying a camera captured images of pieces of melted fuel in the reactor last year, and robotic probes in the two other reactors have detected traces of damaged fuel, but the exact location, contents and other details remain largely unknown. Toshiba unveiled the device carrying tongs that comes out of a long telescopic pipe for an internal probe in one of three damaged reactor chambers at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant - this time to touch chunks of melted fuel Toshiba's energy systems unit said experiments with the new probe planned in February are key to determining the proper equipment and technologies needed to remove the fuel debris, the most challenging part of the decommissioning process expected to take decades.

Japan is poised to flood the Pacific Ocean with one million tons of radioactive water contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear plant. Storage space at the abandoned facility is running dangerously low as officials race to secure the nearly 160 tons of contaminated water produced at the plant per day. As space for tanks dwindles the Japanese government and the plant's owner Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) may decide to dump treated water into the ocean. Japan is poised to flood the Pacific Ocean with one million tons of radioactive water contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear plant. This image shows the transportation of one of the plant's large steel storage tanks Tepco plans to secure 1.37 million tons of storage capacity by the end of 2020, but it has not yet decided on a plan for after 2021.

Work to scrap the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and deal with radioactive water buildup at the site is expected to cost around ¥220 billion ($2 billion) annually over the three-year period from fiscal 2018, a source said Thursday. It is the first time that Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and the state-backed Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp., or NDF, have provided an estimate of annual costs for cleaning up the Fukushima No. 1 complex, more than seven years after the tsunami-triggered nuclear crisis. Tepco and the NDF will soon submit the financial plan to the government to gain approval from industry minister Hiroshige Seko. The NDF, established after the Fukushima crisis started, holds a majority stake in Tepco, and instructs the utility on how to effectively decommission the plant. The outlay plan comes as total costs to scrap the nuclear plant have ballooned.

More melted fuel has been found at the bottom of the Fukushima power planet, seven years after Japan's worst nuclear disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant, says a long telescopic probe has successfully captured images of the fuel inside the plant's Unit 2 primary containment vessel. The images showed that at least part of the fuel breached the core, falling to the vessel's floor. TEPCO says that that the status inside the primary containment vessel is still stable, and that there are no changes in radiation levels at the site boundaries of Fukushima Daiichi's Nuclear Power Plant. A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused three reactors at the Fukushima plant to melt.

This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning via AP) This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning via AP) This image captured by an underwater robot provided by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning on Saturday, July 22, 2017 shows heaps of solidified lava-like rocks believed to be nuclear fuel that had melted in the 2011 accident during a probe inside of the Unit 3 reactor at Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan. TOKYO (AP) -- Images captured by an underwater robot showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1 meter (3 feet) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. On Friday, the robot spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant.

A robot sent to explore the submerged ruins of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is offering a new look at the damage from one of history's worst nuclear disasters. The device nicknamed "Little Sunfish" found melted clumps of material that could be the fuel debris it was sent to locate, according to updates Friday. After an earthquake struck near Japan on March 11, 2011, a tsunami spurred by the quake hit the nuclear plant, damaging generators and causing three nuclear meltdowns and the subsequent release of radioactive material. No radiation-related deaths have been reported, but nearly 100,000 homes had to be evacuated in the aftermath of the disaster. Six years later, the homes remain deserted.

An underwater robot captured images of solidified lava-like rocks Thursday inside a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, spotting for the first time what is believed to be nuclear fuel that melted six years ago. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the robot found large amounts of lava-like debris apparently containing fuel that had flowed out of the core into the primary containment vessel of the Unit 3 reactor at Fukushima. The plant was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. This image captured by an underwater robot shows lava-like lumps believed to contain melted fuel inside the Unit 3 reactor at Fukushima. Experts believe the fuel melted and much of it fell to the chamber's bottom and is now submerged by radioactive water.

Radiation levels inside a stricken reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have hit a record high. Levels are now so high that they could kill off robots sent in to probe the reactors. The development casts doubt over how the disaster-hit facility will be safely dismantled in the future. Radiation levels inside a stricken reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have hit a record high. Levels are so high that they could kill off robots sent in to probe the reactors.