The Japanese government Tuesday said it plans to spend $473.1 million to cope with highly toxic water leaks in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a meeting to discuss the nuclear disaster that the government will take necessary financial steps to address the leakage issue, which it believes now can no longer be handled by the Tokyo Electric Power Co alone, the plant's runner, Xinhua reported citing Japan's Kyodo News.
The decision was probably made due to the concern that the issue might overshadow Tokyo's final bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, whose result will be revealed at an International Olympic Committee's meeting Saturday in Buenos Aires. Abe will participate in the meeting, said Kyodo news.
The spending is likely to cover the cost of creating a large-scale underground water-shielding frozen soil wall around the numbers one and four reactor buildings to prevent further increase in the contaminated water, said the news report.
The funds will also be used to boost the capability of facilities that can lower the radiation level of the toxic water stored at the plant.
The power company has reportedly admitted recently about 300 tons of highly toxic water leaked from containers in the crippled complex and probably flowed into the Pacific Ocean.
Japan's nuclear regulator has ranked the incident as "serious" last week.