Typhoon set to strike nuke plants

Workers at a large Chinese nuclear power station were put on ‘‘combat readiness’’ yesterday as a ‘‘super typhoon’’ bore down on the facility.

Typhoon Mangkhut, a 800kmwide belt of ferocious winds and torrential rain, will slam into densely populated coastal regions of southern China near Hong Kong today, after wreaking destruction across the northern Philippines.

The Yangjiang nuclear plant, which has five working reactors and a sixth under construction, is less than 30km from the storm’s expected landfall.

A second nuclear facility at Taishan also stands in the projected path of the storm.

Chen Weizhong, manager of the Yangjiang nuclear plant, took to WeChat, China’s most popular messaging platform, to warn of Mangkhut’s likely impact.

‘‘All departments must attach the highest level of importance to this and adhere to high standards to strictly ensure the preventive measures are implemented,’’ Chen wrote.

Mangkhut ravaged across the northern Philippines with ferocious winds and heavy rain that left at least 12 dead in landslides and collapsed houses.

The strongest storm so far this year in the world sliced across the northern tip of Luzon Island on Saturday, a breadbasket that is also a region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces with a history of deadly landslides. More than 5 million people were in the path of the typhoon.