TOKYO, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The Japanese government said Tuesday it will spend 47 billion yen ($472 million) to stop radioactive water leaking at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Kyodo News reported the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided to address the radioactive water issue at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as it believes the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. cannot alone handle it by itself.
Radioactive water has been building up at the site of the plant despite the cleanup effort. The plant was wrecked by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Last weekend, Tokyo Electric or Tepco said it found new areas of contamination in the compound where radioactive water from the plant is stored, and radiation levels in other areas had also increased to dangerous levels.
Massive volumes of water have been pumped into the plant to cool its reactors after the quake.
A leakage of about 300 tons of highly radioactive water from a surface tank at the plant went unnoticed for more than a month before it was discovered Aug. 19, Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper has reported.
