Japanese Environment Ministry has announced its plans to build ten improvised radioactive waste storage and processing facilities, which will be located in the two cities of Okuma and Naraha in Fukushima Prefecture. Both cities will have five facilities, set to be constructed underground.

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However, there is a possibility that the plan made by the government will be disapproved by local residents, who are claiming that they have not been consulted on this matter. The local residents said that the land is important and sacred to them and their forefathers and that they will never be able to return if the facilities are built on their land.

Ever since the March 11, 2011 disaster hit Japan, the decontamination and recovery work around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant did not make any significant progress. The reason behind the slow progress is that neither the previous nor the current government of Japan have been able to find land where they would store the contaminated waste.

The latest plan revealed that two kinds of facilities will be built and the plan is approved by a panel of experts in Japan. One type of facility will be able to burn contaminated waste and the other is designed to store more highly toxic materials. So far, the Environment Ministry has not released the specific locations of the proposed sites and said that it will hold further discussions with the local communities to in order to gain their understanding.

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