Japanese authorities have started removing highly radioactive water from the basement of a reactor building to on-site storage.
Removing the 25,000 tons of contaminated water that has collected in the basement of a turbine building at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will help allow access for workers trying to restore vital cooling systems that were knocked out in the March 11 tsunami,
The plant operator Tepco has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year. In all, there are 70,000 tonnes of water to be removed from the plant's reactor and turbine buildings and nearby trenches.
Emergency workers have been unable to enter any of the damaged reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since the natural disasters.
This building had been previously flooded during the tsunami with lightly contaminated water that was later pumped into the ocean to make room for the more heavily irradiated water.
Pressure has been building on the government and TEPCO to resolve Japan's worst-ever nuclear power accident, the result of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that hit on March 11, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing calls for his resignation.
