Japan Winds To Carry Nuclear Radiation To The U.S. West Coast

Japan Winds To Carry Nuclear Radiation To The U.S. West Coast Posted: 14 Mar 2011 12:26 AM PDT Japan Winds To Carry Nuclear Radiation To The U.S. West Coast According to accuweather.com following Friday's major earthquake 9.1 east of Japan, fears were raised of radiations leaks and nuclear meltdowns at power plants. The wind direction may impact where the radiation goes both at a local level and even across the globe and even reach Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu, Anchorage in U.S. The wind direction at both of these locations are similar since the Onagawa power plant is located just to the northeast of Fukushima power plant. "The exact direction of the winds would have to be known at the time of the release of a large amount of radiation to understand exactly where the radiation would go," according to Expert Senior Global Meteorologist Jim Andrews. It is unknown when a large release of radiation would occur, if at all, at this point. "You can calculate how long the release of a radiation would take to cross the Pacific from Japan to the U.S. by choosing different speeds that the radioactive particles might be moving and using the direct distance between given locations- say Sendai, Japan, and Seattle, Wash.," Andrews added. However, even that calculation may not reflect how long the particle would take to cross the Pacific, since it would not likely cross the ocean in a direct path. This is the case because the wind flow is often a complicated pattern. Down below is calculated time for radioactive particles to cross the Pacific from the power plants in Japan to big West Coast cities if the particles take a direct path and move at a speed of 20 mph: Cities Approx. Distance (miles) Approx. Time to Cross Pacific (days) Anchorage 3,457 7 Honolulu 3,847 8 Seattle 4,792 10 Los Angeles 5,477 11