A robot retrieves the first melted fuel from Fukushima nuclear reactor

TOKYO (AP) — A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, said Saturday that the extendable fishing rod-like robot successfully clipped a piece of gravel of about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches), the size of a tiny bit of granola, from the top surface of a mound of molten fuel debris that sits on the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.

The “telesco” robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the melted fuel bit, returned to the enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel earlier Saturday.

The sample return marks the first time the melted fuel is retrieved out of the containment vessel. But the mission is not over until it's certain that the sample's radioactivity is below a set standard and safely placed into a container.

If the radioactivity exceeds the limit, the robot must go back inside the reactor to find another piece. TEPCO officials said they expect the piece is small enough to meet the requirement.

The mission initially started in August for what was supposed to be a two-week round trip but had been suspended twice due to mishaps.

First one was the procedural mistake at the beginning that held up the work for nearly three weeks, then the robot’s two cameras designed to transmit views of the target areas for its operators in the remote control room failed. The camera problem required the robot to be pulled out all the way for replacement before the mission resumed Monday.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its key cooling systems during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in its three reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive molten fuel remains in them, and TEPCO has carried out a number of robotic probes to figure out how to decommission the plant.

Telesco on Wednesday successfully clipped a piece presumably measuring less than 3 grams (0.1 ounce) from the planned area right underneath the Unit 2 reactor core, from which large amounts of melted fuel fell during the meltdown 13 years ago, TEPCO said.

Plant chief Akira Ono said only the tiny spec can provide key data to plan decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and retroactively learn how the accident had developed.

The government and TEPCO have set a 30-to-40-year target for the cleanup, which experts say is overly optimistic and should be updated.

No specific plans for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal have been decided.

FILE - Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, also known as TEPCO, the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, reveals a robot to be used to retrieve debris at the power plant in Kobe, western Japan, May 28, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

A device to remove debris from a reactor at the damaged Fukushima Nuclear power plant demonstrates to pinch a stone, as revealed in Kobe, western Japan, May 28, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The interim government of Ethiopia’s Tigray region appealed for the Ethiopian federal government to intervene after a faction of the Tigray People's Liberation Front seized control of two major towns, leaving several people wounded and raising fears of a return to civil war.

On Tuesday the TPLF faction seized Adigrat, the second-biggest town in Tigray, and appointed a new administrator, ousting the office-holder loyal to the interim government. On Wednesday night, it took control of Adi-Gudem, a town near the regional capital, Mekele. Several people in Adi-Gudem were injured when forces attempted to occupy a government building.

The TPLF fought a brutal two-year war against federal forces which ended in November 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement and the formation of a TPLF-led interim government. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the fighting which began in November 2020, with millions displaced and many left near famine in Africa’s second-most populous country.

However, since the war ended, the TPLF has splintered. In October, its leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, expelled the head of the interim government, Getachew Reda, from the party along with four members of his cabinet.

In retaliation, Reda, who was the chief negotiator of the peace agreement, temporarily suspended four senior military commanders who he believed were aligned with Gebremichael’s faction.

“The region may be on the brink of another crisis,” read a statement Wednesday from the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, which is part of the interim government.

Reda has described the TPLF's recent actions as a “potential coup attempt."

In a televised interview, he emphasized the need for the international community — one of the key guarantors of the Pretoria Peace Agreement — to closely monitor the escalating situation in the war-torn region.

“The parties to the Pretoria Agreement should really take into account the deteriorating situation in Tigray and the far-reaching ramifications of the unraveling of the Pretoria agreements,” he said.

TPLF deputy chairman Amanuel Assefa told The Associated Press that the current crises have nothing to do with the Pretoria agreement but are largely related to law enforcement.

“The TPLF and the Tigray forces are the rightful owners of the Pretoria Agreement. Therefore there is no reason to engage in any actions that would violate that”, he said.

FILE - Ethiopians holding national flags protest against what they say is interference by outsiders in the country's internal affairs and against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party of Tigray's fugitive leaders, at a rally organized by the city administration in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)