TEPCO Starts Preparation Work to Take Cover off Damaged Fukushima Reactor

OKUMA, JAPAN - MAY 15: In this aerial image, preparatory work to remove the cover around the No. 1 reactor building starts at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on May 15, 2015 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. The work is part of a preparatory process that could take several years for the eventual removal of nuclear fuel from the spent fuel pool in the No. 1 reactor building. A large crane lifted a spraying machine to insert a thin, long nozzle into the building through holes created on the top cover to spray a glue-like chemical to contain dust and other materials generated by a hydrogen explosion triggered by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. When the utility was removing debris from the No. 3 reactor building in the summer of 2013, a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment, fostering the public's distrust in the process. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)