The delicate operation is seen as a necessary step in stabilising the site.

 

It will take more than two days to remove the first 22 fuel rods from the pond, plant operator Tepco says.

 

Overall, more than 1,500 rods must be be removed in what correspondents describe as a risky² and dangerous operation expected to take a year.

 

Experts say hydrogen explosions after the earthquake and tsunami³ in March 2011 have made the current storage facility vulnerable to further tremors⁴.

 

The fuel rods are four-metre long tubes containing pellets（芯块，小球） of uranium fuel, and the fear is that some may have been damaged during the disaster.

 

 

When the tsunami struck, water knocked out cooling systems to three of Fukushima's reactors⁵, which went into a state of partial meltdown. 

 

Unit 4 was undergoing maintenance, so all of its fuel rods were being stored. But a build-up of hydrogen - attributed to a meltdown at one of the other reactors - triggered an explosion in Unit 4, damaging its structure. 

 

The removal of the rods has been preceded by months of repair work and planning. 

 

Once extracted using a crane, the fuel rods will be deposited into a more secure storage pool with a cooling system.

 

"Full-scale removal [from the accident-stricken unit] is a very important process in moving ahead with the plant's decommissioning," Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) spokesman Masayuki Ono was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying.

 

Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesman, said he hoped the operation would be done properly.

 

"We hope that this [process] will be conducted in a manner that will not disturb local residents, and that the removal will be done on schedule, properly and safely," he said.

 

The Fukushima nuclear power plant has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months, including a series of toxic⁶ water leaks and worker errors.

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