`` You 're listening to Fukushima FM . '' The cheery jingle on the radio reminds you of a different time in this part of eastern Japan , a different world that existed before March 11 , 2011 . Driving past houses that residents can no longer call home , you can still see sandbags holding down tarpaulins on damaged roofs . They 're the result of the devastating earthquake and tsunami more than two years ago , and repairs the owners have not yet been able to carry out . We 're inside the original 20-kilometer ( 12-mile ) exclusion zone , an area completely evacuated after the tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems for three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant , causing them to melt down and emit radioactive material . Residents can now return to certain parts of the outer exclusion zone but only during the day . The government does not want to run the risk of accumulative radiation exposure if people stay for a full 24 hours . By the side of the road we pass along , teams of workers are clearing the ground of radiation and have been since the summer of 2011 . It 's a colossal task that involves painstakingly removing the top layer of soil and grass to remove as much absorbed radiation as possible . The government-funded operation will have cost $ 1.5 billion by the end of this fiscal year , according to the Japanese government . On any given day up to 8,000 people are working on the clean-up around Fukushima Prefecture . More than a year ago , the workers here wore full protection suits , today they simply wear gloves and the basic face masks you can see anywhere in Japan -- a sign that the radiation level here has dropped . Thousands of industrial-size black bags hold the contaminated soil . They are lined up in fields , waiting for their final resting place -- wherever that may be . This is a reminder that the problem of what to do with radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima plant is not the only storage issue this country has to deal with . During the day , the steady volume of traffic in this outer part of the exclusion zone belies the invisible threat that still exists . It 's a threat that two-and-a-half years later has residents wondering when , or even if , they will be able to move back home .
Operation to clean up irradiated areas around Fukushima nuclear plant continues . Original 20-kilometer ( 12-mile ) exclusion zone around crippled facility remains . The government has said it will not allow any more evacuees from the area back into their homes until a new evacuation plan is in place, but residents have been told they can return as soon New radioactive leaks at plant continue to cause concern two and a half years on .