"Five prefectures' nuclear burden a hot potato no one wants to catch."

"Radioactive soil and vegetation that must be removed in Fukushima and four adjacent prefectures could reach up to 28.79 million cu. meters, equal to filling the Tokyo Dome 23 times, according to a recent Environment Ministry estimate.

But finding a disposal or temporary storage site will be a tall order.

The estimate covers soil and dead leaves mainly from areas with radiation levels of more than 5 millisieverts per year in the prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi, Yamagata, Tochigi and Ibaraki, whose data were used to mete out the rough figures.

In Fukushima, home of the nuclear plant leaking all the radiation, about 17.5 percent of the prefecture is contaminated to that level."

Setsuko Kamiya reports for the Japan Times September 29, 2011.
[2]
SEE ALSO:

"Fukushima’s Contamination Produces Some Surprises at Sea" (Green/NYT) [3]

"Japan Officials Failed to Hand Out Radiation Pills in Quake's Aftermath" (Wall St. Journal) [4]