Take out some of the nuclear fuel remnants of the Fukushima nuclear power plant...For the first time since the 2011 accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said today (2nd) that it has taken a small amount of nuclear fuel debris inside the accident reactor at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant out of the containment container for the first time since the accident in 2011.

According to NHK and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo Electric Power Co. today pulled out 5mm of nuclear fuel debris from Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant No. 2.

This is the first time nuclear fuel debris has been taken out of the reactor containment container at the nuclear power plant since the Great East Japan Earthquake.

However, Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to measure the radiation level of nuclear fuel debris as early as the 5th to make a final decision on whether to recover it.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to return nuclear fuel debris back into containment containers without recovering it when radiation levels exceed dangerous levels.

Conversely, when the recovery decision is made, it will be placed in a dedicated metal container and transferred to the Ibaraki Prefecture Research Institute of the Japan Atomic Energy Research and Development Organization (JAEA) to analyze the distribution of elements for several months.

In August, more than 13 years after the accident, Tokyo Electric Power Co. began to test-export nuclear fuel debris, but failed twice due to errors in assembly of equipment and camera failure.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. developed a flexible pipe device about 22 meters long and used a nail-shaped device attached to the end of the pipe to catch and take out nuclear fuel debris.

However, the method of taking out all the debris has not yet been decided, so even if the small amount is finally recovered this time, the schedule for work until the disposal of nuclear power plants in the future is unclear.

Recovering nuclear fuel debris is considered the most difficult task in the process of decommissioning an accidental nuclear power plant.

The Japanese government planned to dismantle the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant around 2051 but cannot achieve this goal if the nuclear fuel export work is delayed.

It is estimated that there are a total of 880 tons of nuclear fuel debris in Units 1 to 3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The debris was caused by a core meltdown accident, a so-called meltdown accident in which nuclear fuel, which was heated during the Great East Japan Earthquake, melted and fell.