Japan spent over 400 million USD cleaning Fukushima

Reuters on September 3 reported Tokyo will spend nearly 50 billion yen (more than $ 400 million) on emergency measures to cope with the crisis of radioactive water leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

>>> Close up of the contaminated water crisis in Fukushima

"The world is watching to see if we can solve the problem of radioactive water" - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said before the cabinet approved the plan.

Much of the financing will come from 2013 budget reserves, according to Kyodo News. About 32 billion yen will be spent on building underground walls to prevent contaminated water from leaking from the Fukushima plant to the ground and merging into groundwater. In addition, 15 billion yen will be spent on processing systems to lower the level of contamination of water stored in Fukushima.

Contaminated water tanks at the Fukushima plant - (Photo: Reuters)

The leader of the Japanese nuclear management agency Shunichi Tanaka on September 2 said that many of Fukushima's tanks and pipes were contaminated.'We are transferring contaminated water to other tanks' - CNN quoted Tanaka.

In other developments, Tokyo on September 3 also closed one of the country's two remaining nuclear reactors. The reactor will eventually stop working this month.

Kansai Electric Power Company said it began to reduce the power capacity of unit No. 3, the factory in Fukui prefecture on September 2 and stopped operating the unit on September 3 to serve the inspection. Unit 4 is expected to be closed on September 15. Both reactors were restarted in July 2012, despite the villagers' fierce opposition, and the only two reactors reopened after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

According to the Kansai Power, it is unclear whether these reactors are allowed to operate again because they are tested according to the new standards set by the new nuclear authority.

The nuclear crisis after the 2011 catastrophe forced Japan to return to an expensive fossil energy source to offset the energy shortage. Earlier, nuclear plants met 1/3 of Japan's electricity demand.