The Japanese government has ordered the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant to freeze the soil around buildings crippled by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The move is an attempt to stop groundwater seeping in and becoming contaminated.
The amount of contaminated water at the site is increasing by hundreds of tonnes every day, the ABC reports.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) already has a quarter of a million tonnes of radioactive water stored in tanks at Fukushima.
Fearing the nuclear plant is running out of space to store contaminated water, the Japanese government has ordered TEPCO to take the drastic step.
The government hopes these frozen walls of soil will stop huge amounts of groundwater leaking into the buildings and it wants the system to be in place within two years.
According to a report compiled by a government panel on Thursday, there are no previous examples of using walls created from frozen soil to isolate groundwater being used for longer than a few years.