The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant will send a probe equipped with a robotic arm into a damaged reactor to take a sample of radioactive waste.

The probe, equipped with a robotic arm, needs about a week to reach this waste inside the reactor and return with the sample next month. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) wants to retrieve a tiny sample of the roughly 880 tons of radioactive waste inside the reactors of the tsunami-ravaged nuclear power plant.