Robot photos appear to show melted fuel at Fukushima reactor

Images from a remote-controlled submersible robot show damaged areas inside the Fukushima nuclear power plant damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami (IRID/Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. via AP)

A remote-controlled robot has captured images of what appears to be mounds of nuclear fuel that melted and fell to the bottom of the most damaged reactor at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, officials said.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged cooling systems at the power plant, causing the meltdown of three reactor cores. Most of their highly radioactive fuel fell to the bottom of their containment vessels, making its removal extremely difficult.