The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute received a court order Tuesday to remove uranium-contaminated soil it abandoned in the prefecture about 40 years ago.
A residents' association in the town of Togo filed a suit with the Tottori District Court in 2000, demanding that the government-affiliated institute remove the radioactive soil it left in the Katamo district.
Tottori Prefecture and Togo have assumed the judicial costs and are backing the suit.
In 1988, it was revealed soil the institute had mined for uranium from 1958 to 1963 around the Ningyo Toge pass near the border between Tottori and Okayama prefectures was left in the district.