It’s been about seven months since that huge Tsunami hit Japan, wiping out businesses, cars, people and the Fukushima nuclear power station. However, a lot of stuff contained in the 18-mile radioactive exclusion zone remained undamaged, including some pretty usable cars. These can now be bought on the Japanese used car market. Extra limbs sold separately.

Japan has one of the world’s biggest used car markets, mostly on an export basis. Used cars are exported to Russia, Southern Asia and Australia. After the Russian authorities sent back cars that they found to contain radioactive isotopes, most likely due to the disaster at Fukushima, the Japanese have turned to their domestic market. Whilst the Fukushima area has shown miraculous recovery in the months since the disaster (before and after pictures here), radiation takes a while to get rid of. A really long while.

The radiation sits in the filter of the car’s air conditioner, as well as in the rubber parts of the car, such as door seals, wipers and tires. One car for sale was measured as being over 300 times the allowable exposure amount of radiation.

What is going to be really interesting is what is going to happen once the cars are sent to the scrap yard, and parts are used in other cars, or melted down into base metals for use in other metal products. Radioactive iPad 4, anyone?

[Source: NBC Los Angeles]