Japan to Spend Half a Billion Dollars Fighting Toxic Water Leaks at Fukushima

Prime minister says "radical measures" necessary

The Japanese government on Tuesday pledged nearly $500 million to fight toxic water leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, part of an increasingly precarious nuclear cleanup job that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says requires "radical measures."

Concerns about fast-accumulating contaminated water at the plant, nearly 21 / 2 years after an earthquake triggered a major nuclear accident, have pushed the government to invent on-the-fly solutions.