http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2011/ ... st/123599/ Slideshow at the linkNo risk of Japan radiation on West CoastMarch 15th, 2011, 2:41 pm · 1 Comment · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
Radiation from Japan’s troubled nuclear reactors has virtually no chance of reaching the West Coast, Alaska or other locations in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday.
But a Chapman University physicist warns that the picture could change if damage to the compromised reactors causes a large release of radioactive material.
“If there is a major meltdown, a release like Chernobyl, then it’s a different story,” said Menas Kafatos, founding dean of Chapman’s Schmid College of Science.Japanese officials struggled for control Tuesday after explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, damaged in Friday’s tsunami.
A burst of radation Tuesday prompted the government there to order 140,000 people living within 20 miles of the plant to seal themselves inside their homes to avoid radiation exposure; radiation levels around the plant appeared to drop later.
Despite the Japanese nuclear plant’s many troubles, experts say it is unlikely to reach the proportions of the Chernobyl incident 25 years ago, when the reactor core at the former Soviet Union’s nuclear plant caught fire.
That plant had no containment shell, allowing the radiation to spew into the atmosphere.
“We’re a long way from fuel material coming out of the reactor in the way it did in Chernobyl,” said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist. “In this case, the fuel is still contained.”
The statement from the NRC said that the “small” radiation releases so far from the Japanese reactors has been blown out to sea, away from populated areas.
“Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity,” the statement said.
At present levels, in fact, the U.S. was unlikely to see any radiation at all, even trace levels, from Japan, said NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding.
She said the agency was aware of a map bearing the NRC logo circulating on the Internet that purports to show high levels of radiation blowing over the West Coast.
“That’s a bogus map circulating online,” she said.
Still, she said, the agency will continue monitoring the situation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mantains a nationwide network of radiation monitoring stations called Radnet, including at least 12 in California and one in Anaheim.
Kafatos said he agrees with the NRC’s assessment of risk “if we’re talking about present levels.”
But he urged caution and vigilance anyway.
“They’re saying every day that it gets worse,” Kafatos said. “Now they’re detecting what could be harmful levels of radiation as far away as Tokyo. I understand we always try not to cause undue concern, but look at what has happened already to Japan.” Chapman scientists will use a sophisticated antenna on campus to collect satellite data and forecast wind patterns across the Pacific as the Japanese situation evolves, he said.
“We know for sure that when there’s major dust storms from east Asia, it can end up reaching the United States,” he said. “It’s the same winds that go in that direction that could carry nuclear clouds.”The lack of risk did not stop fearful residents in Orange County and across the country from making a run on potassium iodide tablets, tapping out supplies at many stores.
The tablets can protect the thyroid gland against one type of radiation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
