Meltdown made safer

THE operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant is for the first time removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said workers started removing the first of 566 fuel units stored in the pool at Unit 3.

The fuel units in the pool are not enclosed and their removal to safer ground is crucial to avoid disaster in case of another major quake. The removal at Unit 3 is expected to take two years, then operators will work to begin removing melted fuel from the reactors.