(Bloomberg) -- Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. has suspended operations to remove melted radioactive fuel at the bottom of one of the wrecked Fukushima reactors due to a technical issue days after starting, according to local media.
The utility had started the demonstration process of removing fuel at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant last week, but had to suspend the procedure on Tuesday after two cameras on the retrieval device stopped working, according to the Nikkei, citing the company.
The technical problem is the latest setback to hit the operation to retrieve melted fuel and decommission the facility, which is slated to take decades and cost 23 trillion yen ($164 billion). An earlier plan to start the process last month was suspended because of a mistake in the procedure.
A robotic arm shaped like a fishing rod was developed to extract the radioactive material, with a claw-like metallic grip lowered to retrieve small amounts of debris.
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