Japan's Nuclear Crisis: US Safe From Radiation, Say Engineers
NEW YORK) -- As radiation levels continue to rise in Japan while engineers keep struggling with the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, many people in the U.S. are wondering if the danger could spread to American shores.
To those who might worry, nuclear engineers and meteorologists said the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, is safe.
"These releases from the plant, because they're not elevated, because they're not getting up high in the atmosphere, they won't travel very far," said Kathryn Higley, director of the department of nuclear engineering at Oregon State University. "There are so many factors in our favor. Rain will knock it down. There are 5,000 miles of ocean between us and Japan. It will be diluted, it will mix with sea spray, long before it gets remotely close to us."
The high-aititude winds over Japan are primarily out of the west, which is good news for Japan in a worst-case scenario if there were a large release of radiation into the air.
And in a worst-case scenario, where radioactive particles would be carried long-distance by upper-level winds, Edward Morse, a nuclear engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News in an email that "we will get some fallout on the West Coast two to three days after its release in Japan." He added that "the levels will not be threatening to life and health but they will be observable."
"If any radiation were to make it here, it would be merely background levels,"said Jere Jenkins, the director of Radiation Laboratories at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "Nothing for people on the West Coast or people in the United States to be concerned about."
Higley said she has been spending a lot of time over the last few days urging calm.
"We have monitoring capability here in the U.S. that is extraordinarily sensitive. We can detect radiation that is like a hundred-thousandth of what you get from a regular X-ray, and we don't expect to see even that."
"For the stuff to travel, it has to be picked up by the wind," she said, "higher-level winds that have global distribution. And that's just not happening. This is a little like a campfire -- the smoke is all near the ground."
To those who might worry, nuclear engineers and meteorologists said the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, is safe.
"These releases from the plant, because they're not elevated, because they're not getting up high in the atmosphere, they won't travel very far," said Kathryn Higley, director of the department of nuclear engineering at Oregon State University. "There are so many factors in our favor. Rain will knock it down. There are 5,000 miles of ocean between us and Japan. It will be diluted, it will mix with sea spray, long before it gets remotely close to us."
The high-aititude winds over Japan are primarily out of the west, which is good news for Japan in a worst-case scenario if there were a large release of radiation into the air.
And in a worst-case scenario, where radioactive particles would be carried long-distance by upper-level winds, Edward Morse, a nuclear engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News in an email that "we will get some fallout on the West Coast two to three days after its release in Japan." He added that "the levels will not be threatening to life and health but they will be observable."
"If any radiation were to make it here, it would be merely background levels,"said Jere Jenkins, the director of Radiation Laboratories at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "Nothing for people on the West Coast or people in the United States to be concerned about."
Higley said she has been spending a lot of time over the last few days urging calm.
"We have monitoring capability here in the U.S. that is extraordinarily sensitive. We can detect radiation that is like a hundred-thousandth of what you get from a regular X-ray, and we don't expect to see even that."
"For the stuff to travel, it has to be picked up by the wind," she said, "higher-level winds that have global distribution. And that's just not happening. This is a little like a campfire -- the smoke is all near the ground."
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
