Abe ordered the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to urgently deal with the water situation and ensure the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, takes appropriate action to deal with the cleanup, which is expected to take more than 40 years and cost $11 billion.
The ministry official also said the utility would begin pumping out groundwater to reduce leakage and had aimed to be removing 300 tonnes per day by December, but would end up 60 tonnes short of that goal. Removing 300 tonnes of groundwater, however, would not necessarily halt leakage into the sea, he said.