The operating company at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has begun the risky but crucial task of removing radioactive fuel rods from one of the four reactors.<br /><br /> It is seen as an important first step towards making the plant stable.<br /><br /> In a process due to take over a year, more than 1,500 tubes must be lifted out of a storage pool.<br /><br /> A spokesman for Tepco said they started lifting up a first fuel assembly with a crane at 15.18 local time, (06.18 GMT), on Monday afternoon.<br /><br /> A key question is whether the fuel rods were damaged during the disaster and may leak during removal.<br /><br /> Unit 4 of the plant was offline at the time of the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.<br /><br /> Its core did not melt down as the other three did, but hydrogen explosions have since weakened the structure.<br /><br /> The first stage will see 22 of the 4.5 metre long tubes removed over two days and placed in a common pool with a cooling system.<br /><br /> The casks must remain watertight during the operation and have no contact with air.<br /><br /> An American expert taken on by the operator, Lake Barrett, said he was confident Tepco would do a good job.<br /><br /> But several other engineers, both Japanese and foreign, have warned that any errors during the process could have grave consequences, such as sudden leaks of radioactive material. <br /><br /> Tepco’s boss, Naomi Hirose, said at the beginning of last week that “safety was the priority”.<br /><br /> Meanwhile reports in Japan say Tepco is looking to shed 1,000 jobs through voluntary redundancies.
