Russia's Customs In Far East Discover Radioactive Car On Ship From Japan

The Customs of Russia's major eastern port city, Vladivostok, discovered a vehicle on board a ship arriving from Japan that was contaminated with radioactivity, which was the first such case in the past three years, the Customs' press service said

VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2020) The Customs of Russia's major eastern port city, Vladivostok, discovered a vehicle on board a ship arriving from Japan that was contaminated with radioactivity, which was the first such case in the past three years, the Customs' press service said.

"Following the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant accident in Japan, between April 2011 to June 2017, 875 such cases of [radioactive goods] were detected in the customs region. No radioactive vehicles have been identified in the last three years. The latest case indicates that the consequences of the accident have not completely disappeared," the agency said.

Customs officers detected beta radiation coming from a Toyota Prius Hybrid. The vehicle will be sent back to Japan.

The accident at the Fukushima plant in March 2011 was triggered by a 46-feet tsunami that hit Japan following a 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake. The meltdown at three out of the four units and hydrogen-air explosions, which were provoked by a cooling systems failure, led to the leakage of radioactive materials and the shutdown of the plant.