As Japan nears the 13th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, efforts to understand and clean the site's radioactive debris are intensifying. In short:A significant focus of the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup involves extracting melted fuel debris from the reactors, an effort full of uncertainties. Akira Ono, the project's head, emphasizes the importance of securing a sample from the reactors to advance the decommissioning process. Key quote:"We have achieved a number of things, but we still have a lot of thinking to do to tackle the unprecedented task of removing melted fuel." Despite efforts to contain and treat it, groundwater continues to seep into the reactor buildings, mixing with highly radioactive water used to cool the fuel cores.
