TOKYO, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Scientists in Japan said they were trying to identify four objects, all highly radioactive, found in an area evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The first found object is a small pile of what looks like dirt, discovered 9 miles from the nuclear plant that was crippled in March 2011 during Great East Japan Earthquake and the disastrous tsunami that followed, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
The discovery of the small mound in June was followed in July by the discovery of what appears to be a piece of tree bark, something that looks like a bit of plastic sheeting and a small heap of wood chips.
All would be ordinary except for their high levels of radioactivity.
Some officials believe the mystery objects were washed out to sea from the reactor and then back to land.
"Rubble likely was blown out into the ocean by the hydrogen explosions that occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 plant," a local official in Naraha told the Shimbun. "There is the possibility that lighter objects were washed back ashore."
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operated Fukushima, is responsible for the cleanup.
