A robot begins removing molten fuel from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It could take a century

TOKYO (AP) - A tall robot entered a damaged reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday, beginning a challenging two-week mission to retrieve the first small amount of molten fuel residue from the bottom.

The robot's journey to the Unit 2 reactor is a crucial first step for what comes next: a daunting, decades-long process to decommission the plant and deal with large amounts of highly radioactive molten fuel inside three reactors damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Experts hope the robot will help them learn more about the status of the cores and fuel ...