Fukushima nuclear plant: First video from inside disaster site captured by robot

Eerie footage from inside the doomed Fukushima nuclear reactor has shown for the first time the interior of the abandoned power plant.

A robot equipped with a camera and a device for measuring radiation levels sent back images of decay inside the Number One reactor.

Until the probe entered the site, nobody had seen inside the reactor at the heart of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Disturbingly, it also showed officials at the site where radiation levels inside the darkened premises were high enough to kill a person within an hour.

Video showed smoke rising through the grated flooring of the reactor, which is thought to be where the melted nuclear fuel rods are.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent in the probe just over four years after Fukushima melted down after being hit by a tsunami wave in 2011. It caused radioactive material to leak out in to the atmosphere, leading the site and the area around it to be abandoned.

The robot's mission was supposed to last 10 hours, but it broke down after only three hours for reasons unknown. Efforts were made to return power to the unit, but officials eventually elected to abandon the machine inside the reactor.

A TEPCO spokesman called the mission "a big step towards decontamination of Fukushima."

Watch the first-ever video from inside the abandoned nuclear power plant.