America on nuclear alert: Could fallout from Japan explosion reach U.S. West Coast?
America was on alert today amid fears the nuclear fallout from the Japan earthquake could reach the West Coast of the U.S.
Scientists warned of a 'worst-case scenario' in which a meltdown could blast highly radioactive material into the atmosphere.
This would be then picked up by powerful 30,000ft winds carrying the debris across the Pacific and hitting America within four days.
Earthquake-hit Japan is fighting to avoid a nuclear catastrophe as one over-heating reactor lost its cooling today, following explosions at two other reactors at the Fukushima plant.
Leading nuclear expert Dr John Large, who has visited the Fukushima plant, said he is concerned that where the radiation ends up is ‘in the lap of the gods’.
‘The exclusion zone keeps being raised. First it was 3km, then 10, now 20,’ he added. ‘This plant has gone through all the steps that occurred at Three Mile Island, and that led to total meltdown.
‘It looks like the reactors automatically shut down following the earthquake, causing a massive collapse of power to the grid,' he told the Sunday Express.
A second explosion rocked the nuclear plant today, sending smoke into the air. The blast follows a similar explosion in another unit on Saturday and a further reactor has also lost its cooling capacity.
But University of Washington Professor of Atmospheric Science Dan Jaffe told Q13 Fox: 'Based on what we're seeing in terms of the radiation that's being released now, there is no risk at all.
'Even in the worst case scenario there is a low likelihood of much risk over the Pacific Northwest.'
Nuclear regulators say the General Electric-designed reactors involved in the emergency are very similar to 23 reactors used in the U.S, reported MSNBC.
The worst case scenario is that the fuel rods fuse together,' nuclear expert Joe Cirincione said.
'The temperatures get so hot that they melt together into a radioactive molten mass that bursts through the containment mechanisms and it is exposed to the outside so there's spewed radioactivity into the ground, into the air and into the water,' he told Fox 43.
'Some of that radioactivity could carry in the atmosphere to the West Coast of the United States.'
But the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission believes there is no danger of radiation drifting as far as the West Coast.
Officials have admitted that fuel rods in Unit Two of the plant were temporarily exposed from their coolant, raising the risk of a meltdown.
This follows a hydrogen explosion at the reactor in Unit Three earlier today, which hurt eleven workers and was felt 25 miles away. Unit One exploded on Saturday.
Engineers were fighting to keep the reactors under control after the tsunami knocked out emergency coolant systems on Friday and 180,000 people have been evacuated from the area.
They were trying to cool radioactive materials at the reactors with seawater but halted this after it resulted in a rise in radiation levels and pressure.
They knew an explosion was possible, but felt they had no choice to avoid a complete meltdown and the blast was set off after the hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere.
The plant's operator stated that radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits and the government said the Unit Three reactor's inner containment vessel holding nuclear rods is intact.
Meanwhile, a Navy crew delivering aid received almost a month’s worth of radiation in just one hour.
The USS Ronald Reagan was around 100 miles (160km) offshore when low-level radioactive contamination was detected from the stricken Fukushima plant.
Low radiation levels were detected on 17 members of the crew on three helicopters as they returned to the ship after delivering aid to the devastated city of Sendai.
Most of the radiation was found on the clothing of the 17-man crew, but also on one's skin. The sailors were said to not have experienced ill-effects following the incident.
Contamination was found on the helicopters, which were scrubbed down on landing.
The U.S. Seventh Fleet has moved its ships and aircraft away from the Fukushima plant - hit by two explosions since Friday’s dramatic earthquake and tsunami.
The radiation fears were raised as the helicopters returned after delivering aid.
The helicopters sounded the alert around 60 miles from the coast and the ship’s sensors also sounded when it was 100 miles north east of the plant.
The fleet said the dose was around the same as one month's normal exposure to the environment’s natural background radiation.
The Reagan and several other Navy ships were later repositioned away from the wind coming from Fukushima as a 'precautionary' measure, a U.S. Navy spokesman said.
‘The maximum potential radiation dose received by any ship's force personnel aboard the ship when it passed through the area was less than the radiation exposure received from about one month of exposure to natural background radiation from sources such as rocks, soil and the sun,' Navy spokesman Jeff Davis said.
He told ABC News: 'We remain totally committed to our mission of providing assistance to the people of Japan.'
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