A crucial operation to remove a small amount of radioactive debris from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant is underway by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

In 2011, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear power plant beyond repair.

The Fukushima meltdown was considered the worst nuclear disaster since that at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in April 1986 and prompted the declaration of a 30km evacuation zone around the Japanese plant. Seven years after the disaster, a Greenpeace report found that radiation levels in the area continued to be up to 100 times higher than normal.

Tepco is currently engaged in a decades-long effort to decommission the plant. This includes dealing with large amounts of highly radioactive melted fuel inside three reactors that were damaged in 2011.The crucial first step in this decommissioning process has now taken place, with Tepco sending a robot down the Unit 2 reactor to retrieve a tiny amount of melted fuel debris from...