Twisted metal beams still jut from the top of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi stricken reactors, almost one year after a massive tsunami triggered nuclear meltdown.

They remain as an eerie monument to the country's worst ever nuclear disaster, frozen in time by the dangers that surround the reactors and what's inside.

The reactors at the northern Japanese plant were declared last December to be in cold shutdown, a term used to indicate that operations are under control and pose no immediate threat.

Michael Friedlander, a former senior operator at U.S. nuclear power plants, said in this instance the words "cold shutdown" are "completely inappropriate" to describe the situation at the Fukushima plant.