Radiation levels have hit a record high inside one of the Japanese nuclear reactors badly damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Readings from reactor No 2 at the Fukushima plant are so high they threaten to shut down the robot camera probe being used to monitor the site while it is being dismantled.
Pictures from the inside of the reactor also show a metal grating that contained nuclear fuel, has largely collapsed, causing a hole about a metre wide.
Black debris that could be melted fuel is also seen in the images, taken from the deepest point yet reached in the reactor.
Radiation levels at one spot were estimated at 530 sieverts per hour, far higher than the previous record of 73 sieverts per hour.