Radiation-contaminated debris is collected on plastic sheeting in an area of land that has had a layer of soil removed and replaced by sand, in Litate. Four years after the Tohoku earthquake and a deadly tsunami that precipitated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster, hundreds of square miles around the stricken reactor remain off-limits for habitation due to radioactivity. As part of the cleanup operation thousands of tonnes of topsoil have been removed and bagged up but currently there is a lack of suitable storage facilities for the radioactive material.