Nuclear waste scattered by typhoon Hagibis

Tens of thousands of bags of contaminated waste lie in a temporary storage area in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture in December 2016. ROB GILHOOLY PHOTO

The typhoon that wreaked havoc throughout much of Japan over the weekend reportedly scattered contaminated waste from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster zone.

Officials from Tamura in Fukushima Prefecture reported Sunday that dozens of flexible bags containing radioactive waste were swept away from a storage facility by Typhoon Hagibis, which claimed at least 40 lives and left thousands homeless.

The facility holds some 2,700 one-ton bags of waste, mostly radioactive vegetation that has been removed from the grounds of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which experienced triple meltdowns and explosions in March 2011 — the second-worst nuclear disaster in history. ​

According to national broadcaster NHK 10 bags were retrieved from a nearby stream, but it remained unclear how many of the remaining bags stored at the facility were still missing.