Japanese Nuclear Crisis Deepens

After several days of uncertainty surrounding the fitness of Japanese nuclear power plants it appears that the worst is not yet over. Today, the International Atomic Energy Association declared the nuclear crisis in Japan to be a 6on a scale that goes to 7.

To compare, the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979 rated a 3 while the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl was a 7. And the Japanese crisis isn’t over yet.

Most experts don’t think that the leaking radiation from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant poses any health risk to people living in the United States. But near the hot zone evacuations are complete and people up to 20 miles away are being asked to stay in their homes.

Japanese officials also have potassium iodine tablets to hand out to people if an eminent radioactive threat poses a risk to public health. Journalists covering the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 are watching the Japanese government closely to get a sense of if or when radioactivity becomes a bigger health concern.

People near the weakened power plant will only be given iodine if they are about to be exposed to radioactive particles. The tablets will protect the thyroid gland from absorbing the radioactive material which can lead to thyroid cancer if untreated.

Late in the day, Japanese officials announced that the six nuclear reactors that make up the Fukushima complex were all suffering from different problems after the earthquake and tsunami. That, nuclear experts say, is unprecedented.

Some have also been critical of the private operator of the power plants for not being more forthcoming about previous safety problems and not keeping the Japanese government informed of all the changes as this crisis has developed.

This evening Japanese officials say that they have ordered the evacuation of many of the remaining workers at the power plant because radiation levels are too high to remain. These workers have been battling periodic fires, monitoring containment shields that house spent nuclear fuel and active fuel rods.

After the earthquake and tsunami the power plant automatically shut itself down but some of the procedures to cool the nuclear power rods failed. As a last-ditch effort workers started dumping seawater into the reactors in an effort to keep the rods from over heating.

With several explosions in the last couple of days to release heat and pressure that has been building, it appears that some of the nuclear material has been exposed to the air, allowing radioactive cesium gas to escape and enter the outside environment.

Depending on wind and precipitation — which near the plant is falling as snow — the radiation will travel away from the Japanese coast. If it heads east, toward the west coast of the U.S. it will dissipate in the atmosphere and likely pose little or no health risk. With prevailing winds, the fallout will reach the U.S. within 10 days. If the winds shift onshore then the radioactive material will settle on Japanese soil.