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82 bags of radioactive materials washed away by Typhoon Etau in Japan

This handout picture released by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on February 17, 2015 shows a member of the IAEA mission team inspecting disabled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. (AFP)

At least 82 bags full of radioactive contaminated materials from the Japan’s disabled Fukushima nuclear plant have been washed away by flood in the recent devastating rainstorm, Japanese officials say.

The Japanese environmental ministry said on Friday that these bags, suspected to contain radioactive grass and other contaminated materials, had been collected at the site of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) following its disastrous meltdown in March 2011 and had been kept in a town near the plant site, RT reported.

The ministry further said that most of the bags had been recovered; however, according to local media, only 30 of them had been collected.

Japanese officials say that the recent flooding from torrential rains triggered by Typhoon Etau have not reached the crippled nuclear plant, but there are reports that the heavy rain have made the NPP drainage rainwater to overflow into the Pacific Ocean.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga assured reporters on Friday that the radiation level of the overflowed water would be “sufficiently below” the legally permitted level.

Pedestrians wade through flood waters on a road following torrential rains brought on by Typhoon Etau in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan on September 8, 2015. (AFP)

Typhoon Etau, which has overwhelmed the country since earlier in the week, prompted the Japanese government to evacuate tens of thousands of people from their homes across the country. So far, three people have lost their lives and at least 25 have gone missing because of the fierce storm.


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