Japan nuclear health risks low, won't blow abroad, experts say

Reuters ^ | 03/13/2011 | Alister Doyle

[SeekAndFind]

Health risks from Japan's quake-hit nuclear power reactors seem fairly low and winds are likely to carry any contamination out to the Pacific without threatening other nations, experts say.

Tokyo battled to avert a meltdown at three stricken reactors at the Fukushima plant in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, triggered by Friday's tsunami. Radiation levels were also up at the Onagawa atomic plant.

"This is not a serious public health issue at the moment," Malcolm Crick, Secretary of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, told Reuters.

"It won't be anything like Chernobyl. There the reactor was operating at full power when it exploded and it had no containment," he said. As a precaution, around 140,000 people have been evacuated from the area around Fukushima.

Crick said a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in the United States in 1979 -- rated more serious than Japan's accident on an international scale -- released low amounts of radiation.

"Many people thought they'd been exposed after Three Mile Island," he said. "The radiation levels were detectible but in terms of human health it was nothing." Radiation can cause cancers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also said the public health risk from Japan's atomic plants remained "quite low." The quake and devastating tsunami may have killed 10,000 people.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that the winds in the area would shift from the south to a westerly on Sunday night, blowing from Fukushima toward the Pacific Ocean.

[Bob]

Back in 1945 there were two major radiation leaks. I’m pretty sure that the whole West coast of the United States was contaminated and everyone died. /s

Additionally, there were, if I'm not mistaken, at least hundreds of other major radiation leaks in the Pacific during the years before above-ground nuke testing was discontinued.

[R4nd0m]

First, when the cooling system failed we were told that the situation is under control and there is no risk of radiation, now that the whole thing has blown up, we are told once again that the 'risk' of widespread damage is low...... wonder what poor souls (ordinary Japanese) are actually going through....

All we can do is pray wholeheartedly for their safety

[R4nd0m]

The question is this — how many died AS A RESULT of the radiation leak?

I may be wrong but I guess unless exposed to extremely high levels of radiation there is no risk of people just dropping dead but we should be more worried about the genetic defects to the offsprings of those affected by even small levels radiation leaks. As per media reports, there are 160 people who have tested positive.

[Spktyr]

The reactors haven’t actually blown up. Essentially the awning blew off when venting gas ignited. Main building was untouched, as was the reactor vessel.

[R4nd0m]

You are correct. I was only referring to the two explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

[Palladin]

All you wiseguys better take a look at today’s news.

Don’t blame me if all your young-uns are born with two heads.