A robot tasked with navigating the wreckage inside Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 2 reactor has successfully retrieved a small sample of melted nuclear fuel, marking a crucial step in Japan's journey toward decommissioning the disaster-stricken plant.

A robot has delved into the radioactive ruins of Fukushima to retrieve a tiny chunk of spent nuclear fuel. It’s the first time solid fuel debris has been removed from the plant – but they’ve still got a hell of a long way to go: 880 tons of the stuff to be precise.

A difficult operation to remove a small piece of radioactive debris from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant using a robotic device was completed successfully, the plant operator said Thursday, after technical issues halted earlier attempts.

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced it has successfully completed the trial removal of a sample of fuel debris from the primary containment vessel of unit 2 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.