Reports reaching CEOAFRICA from Japan is that a mission of extraordinary fragility and danger is about to begin at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station, as engineers are preparing to extract the first of more than 1,000 nuclear fuel rods from one of the wrecked reactor buildings.

This is seen as an essential but risky step on the long road towards stabilising the site.

This building was badly damaged by an explosion in March 2011 following the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Moving the rods to safety is a high priority but has only become possible after months of repair work and planning. The fuel rods are currently in a precarious state in a storage pool in Unit 4.

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