Japan’s government has decided that a state-owned company will be responsible for the disposal of contaminated soil and other radioactive waste outside Fukushima Prefecture. The government plans to purchase land plots in Futaba and Okuma towns in Fukushima Prefecture in order to build interim storage facilities there, according to Japan’s (NHK WORLD) website. The interim facilities will store soil and other waste from cleanup work in areas contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011. But local people fear the facilities will become final disposal sites. The government promised last month to stipulate legally that the final disposal must take place outside of Fukushima Prefecture.