- NYTimes : Finally, ''Scientists'' Predict Japanese Radiation Plume
- Second U.S. aircraft carrier, 175 miles away from doomed nuclear power plant, detects radiation
- America on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.
- Reuters : ''Minute Levels'' of Radiation Detected in Tokyo
- NYTimes : Employees abandon Fukushima power plant ; Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise
CORRECTED ! Could a risk exist of nuclear radiation danger to the U.S. West Coast following the Japanese nuclear power plant explosion ?
In the latest news report, The Daily Mail reports that the "Nuclear Regulatory Commission admits it is 'quite possible' radiation could reach the U.S."
If the nuclear power plant explosion in Fukushima, Japan, generates large amounts of nuclear fallout, then people living in the West Coast of the United States could be exposed to nuclear radiation, if radiation enters the Pacific Ocean jet stream.
Indeed, "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, according to The Daily Mail.
Conceivably, some amount of radiation would reach islands in the Pacific Ocean, such as Hawaii, followed by the West Coasts of Canada and the United States. Large U.S. West Coast cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, would be at risk.
It is not yet known if scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have issued any emergency advisories in the United States. Even as David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said, "Right now it's quite possible that there could be some radiation floating over the United States," 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," according to The Daily Mail.
People living along the West Coast of the United States seemed to have largely escaped mass damage from the tsunami following the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan. Now, the dangerous new threat facing the U.S. West Coast is radiation exposure.
Related stories :
- Reuters : ''Minute Levels'' of Radiation Detected in Tokyo
- NYTimes : Employees abandon Fukushima power plant ; Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise
- USA Today : Blast rocks Fukushima reactor No. 2 ; radioactive leak feared
- CNN : Tests detect radioactivity on 17 U.S. Navy crew members in Japan
- YouTube.com - New (Hydrogen) Explosion At Fukushima Number 3 Reactor (March 14)
- CNN reported on Sunday that nuclear meltdown may be underway
- IAEA issues YouTube video statement
