Japan's plans to cope with land and soil

Dirty soil
There have also been significant developments this week in Japan's plans to cope with land and soil contaminated by airborne pollution from the reactors, mainly released in explosions and fires in March and April.

On Tuesday, the Japanese environment ministry said that about 30 million cubic metres of contaminated soil and vegetation from around Fukushima prefecture may need to be disposed of – 23 times the volume of the iconic Tokyo Dome baseball stadium in the capital. The volume is so high because an expert panel recommended that 5 centimetres of topsoil should be shaved off contaminated areas, mainly farmland, but also including forested and residential areas.

A day later, the ministry unveiled a plan to build temporary storage facilities for the soil in eight prefectures in different parts of Japan.

Meanwhile there was good news this week from Fukushima-Daiichi itself. TEPCO reported on Wednesday that for the first time since the disaster on 11 March, the temperatures of all three of the most severely damaged reactor units had fallen below 100 °C – a key step towards the goal of cold shutdown, which will effectively mothball the reactors for good.

The final reactor to fall below 100 °C was unit 2, the source of much of the leaked water in April.