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THIS is the moment a robot digs out a rice-sized scrap of nuclear fuel from 880 tons of irradiated nuclear waste and make a startling discovery.
It marks the first piece of the dangerous scrap removed from the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
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Three of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan, suffered severe damage as a result of an earthquake and tsunami.
New footage captures a robot claw grab onto the tiny piece of melted waste and the clean up formally begin on the horrifying situation.
The sample is set to be transported to a lab for full analysis in a secure container – 13 years on from the disaster.
Much about the site remains a mystery as it is so dangerous to go near – locals have not reutned to their homes.
But surprisingly, the sample taken by the robot was found to be significantly less radioactive than expected.
The Fukushima nuclear plant was damaged when a magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a tsunami, struck Japan in 2011.
Around 880 tons of fuel debris remains in three reactors, which experienced core meltdowns during the nuclear disaster.
Like a Mars rover, the robot had to take several days to get to its destination and back in an environment hostile to humans.
The sample it grabbed weighed less than three grams and was from a mound of melted fuel debris in the main containment vessel.
The arm of the robot is like those on the International Space Station.
It is made from stainless steel and aluminium, measures 22m long, and weighs a whopping 4.6tons.
The government and the plant’s operator have set a 30-to-40-year target to finish the cleanup by 2051, which experts say is overly optimistic and should be updated.
Some say it would take for a century or longer.
Earlier this year, a terrifying drone video revealed the first glimpse inside ground zero of the hardest-hit Fukushima reactor.
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The eerie footage shows the melted wreckage alongside displaced control equipment, misshapen materials and blackened ladders.
The images taken by miniature drones are the first from inside the hardest-hit No. 1 reactor’s primary containment vessel – an area directly under the reactor’s core.
Hydrogen and radioactive materials were released into the atmosphere, forcing residents within 30km of the site to leave and never return.
Images taken by miniature drones from deep inside the worst-hit No.1 reactor show the epicentre of the catastrophe which scarred Japan.
Displaced control equipment, misshapen materials and blackened ladders are buried amongst the mangled concrete.
What was the Fukushima nuclear disaster?
The nuclear accident happened on March 11, 2011 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi site in northern Japan.
It is the second worst nuclear accident in the history of the nuclear power generation after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
A tsunami, triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake, damaged the cooling systems and backup generators at the plant.
All three of the reactors were successfully shut down, but the loss of power caused the cooling systems to fail in the days afterwards.
The government was forced to declare a 40-km evacuation zone and nearly 230,000 residents had to flee.
Thirteen years on and the plant still contains 800 tons of highly-radioactive nuclear fuel.
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