Radioactive fallout from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is unlikely to do serious damage in Korea, scientists say. Strong westerly winds blow in the upper atmosphere several kilometers above the surface of areas in the middle latitudes like Korea due to the Earth's rotation, so radioactive particles move westwards away from Korea.
An explosion occurred at the nuclear power plant on Saturday in the wake of a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated the island country. Radioactive particles would have moved toward the Pacific because southwesterly winds blew in the atmosphere 1.5 km above the surface as well as in the upper atmosphere, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.
The KMA concluded that Korea is out of harm's way.
Experts do not believe the repercussions will be as serious as in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, when radioactive fallout from the accident at the Ukrainian nuclear plant affected countries as far afield as Western Europe and contaminated 22 percent of what is now Belarus.
But parts of the U.S. and Canada, on the other side of the Pacific, could be slightly affected due to the westerly winds.
Radioactive matter is expected to spread to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula about 2,000 km from Fukushima around Monday or Tuesday, the KMA predicted, but the extent is unclear.
"We won't know the effect of the fallout until the Japanese government makes data like the amount of leaked radioactive material public," said Dr. Kim Seung-bum of the National Institute of Meteorological Research.
Link : http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/03/14/2011031400374.html
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