Alaska appears safe in Japanese radiation fallout scenarios

Three Japanese nuclear reactors were damaged in the Sendai earthquake and tsunami on the northeast coast of Japan, and as of this week all were in danger of "meltdown," according to The Christian Science Monitor. Alaska Dispatch recently spoke with an Alaskan living outside Tokyo, who shared his earthquake experience and how his life had been impacted. The ensuing nuclear crisis has led many in the U.S. to worry that nuclear contamination may reach the West Coast. Jeff Masters is a Weather Underground meteorologist who is actually posting calculations of where Japanese radiation fallout might go, assuming worst case scenario of meltdown and explosion. It appears similar to the volcano ash scenarios produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Masters is quoted by some media outlets as a specialist advising that Japanese radition will not "hurt North America." At least one of his posts shows how wind currents from Japan reach Alaska, which is 3,000 miles away in a direct line. According to Masters, even a direct flow from a catastrophic nuclear explosion or meltdown would dilute radiation so much that it could not threaten human health in North America. As evidence he cites the Chernobyl disaster, which had a 300-mile perimeter of radiation effects. According to that model, Tokyo, which is about 150 miles from the current nuclear disasters in Japan, would be in trouble. Read the latest from Masters, and check out this March 14 post with trajectories that meander into the Alaska neighborhood.