Wind currents at 30,000 feet could carry a nuclear cloud across the Pacific Ocean, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission admits that it is ''quite possible'' that radiation could reach the U.S., with California ''monitoring situation closely,'' according to The Daily Mail.
"Fears that America could be hit by the nuclear fallout from the Japan earthquake have dramatically increased as workers prepared to abandon a reactor crippled by the earthquake and tsunami ..." in Fukushima, Japan.
"Right now it's quite possible that there could be some radiation floating over the United States,' said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre, according to The Daily Mail. Other pertinent parts of The Daily Mail report :
"The wind direction for the time being seems to point the (nuclear) pollution towards the Pacific," Andre-Claude Lacoste, of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, told AFP.
The NRC downplayed the threat to Americans, however. Mr McIntyre told the AFP: "We don't think that it would be particularly harmful... even in a worst case scenario."
"We see a very low likelihood, a very low probability that there is any possibility of harmful radiation levels in the United States or in Hawaii or in any other U.S. territories," added an NRC statement.
Read the full report : America on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.
