Japan to spend 40 bln yen to treat radioactive water at Fukushima: Nikkei

TOKYO - The Japan government plans to spend at least 40 billion yen (S$514.4 million) to contain the leaking of radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Nikkei newspaper said, citing government sources.

The government is expected to announce on Tuesday a package of measures to deal with the crisis at the Tokyo Electric Power Co plant wrecked by an earthquake in 2011.

The government intends to cover all the costs for freezing the soil around the reactors to prevent groundwater from mixing with contaminated water inside the reactor, the daily said.

The work will start this fiscal year and about half of the pledged clean-up money is expected to come from the contingency fund of Japan's budget, the business paper said.

Tepco said on Monday patrolling workers came across a new area of high radiation near storage tanks hastily built to store water that was used to cool Fukushima.