Japan spent 970 million USD to build a place to store contaminated soil

Japan is planning to spend about 970 million USD to set up facilities to store thousands of tons of radioactive soil from the Fukushima disaster.

Asahi Shimbun led the Japanese government, saying it would buy about 3-5 km ^{2 of} land in the area near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. This is a nuclear plant that has a radioactive leak after the terrifying earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

However, finding a suitable location to build the facility that the government intends to use for 30 years, is a major challenge when no locality is ready to provide this land.

Also according to the article published in the newspaper, Tokyo wants to use the land in three heavily contaminated towns near the nuclear plant. Detailed information about the locations will be announced by the Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishiara to local officials this week.

Experts are checking in the contaminated area in Okuma Town, Fukushima Prefecture.(Photo: AFP)

The mayors of Futaba, Okuma, Naraha and Fukushima prefectures, Yuhei Satom, fear that these plots are being used for temporary purposes, but will most likely be a permanent use option in future.

Many households living in large areas around the nuclear plant were evacuated after a nuclear reactor explosion at the Fukushima plant.

While some areas are now considered safe and people can return to live, many other places have not yet been determined to reuse. Scientists warn that people will not be able to live in certain locations for decades because radiation levels are too high.

Buying land in these areas may be a solution to the Japanese government to solve the current deadlock problem when many evacuees still have to live temporarily. This is explained because they cannot afford to buy new land or houses, since the houses here are not yet sold.

According to AFP, the total amount of radioactive contaminated soil and garbage collected during the decontamination process, estimated at the end of August to be about 132,738 tons, 80% of which are statistics from Fukushima Prefecture.

This contaminated soil is currently stored in waste incinerators, wastewater treatment plants, agricultural and forestry facilities throughout Japan.

Experts say the government needs to find a more effective and long-term solution to solve this problem because the warehouses are limited.