Updated plume trajectory as calculated by University of Maryland
Air parcel trajectories found using the NOAA HYSPLIT model, as a function of plume height, for release over the Fukushima power plant. Each figure corresponds to release on the indicated date. The top panel of shows the forecast projection of the plumes, with each circle representing a 24 hr period of time. The uncertainty in location is represented by the line segments drawn through each circle (these uncertainties are difficult to estimate at later portions of the trajectory).
The bottom panel shows the forecast altitude of the trajectory. Dotted lines indicate where rainfall occurs. The entry point into North America of each trajectory is indicated. The concentration of hazardous material is greatly reduced by mixing along the trajectories. In addition, most hazardous materials are removed by rainfall
TrueblueNZ 
5 responses to “Updated Map Showing Estimated Path Nuclear Radiation Plume”
Before the quake in Japan, no one was talking about our nuke plants, now everyone is freaking out about the saftey factor here. Where the hell were all these people before. People just have to jump on the band wangon to stir folks and incite fear.
LikeLike
These people WERE saying No to dangerous Nuclear plants… unfortunately, no one listened and they kept being built. Now, most are saying – See?!!!
Some people believe that if we don’t rely on nuclear power then we must rely on coal. These people do not understand that we have more than two choices. We have all manner of natural energy — wind, sun, water, biofuel. These are just those I know of… doubtless, there are many more that we have either yet to discover or that have been invented and suppressed.
This disaster is just one of many to come, because we don’t seem to learn.
LikeLike
sizora, you’ve clearly been reading far too much green propaganda. Nuclear energy is by a large margin the safest form of generation. It has killed fewer people in the 60 years it’s been around than other forms kill in a single year. The Fukushima plant was 40 years old. It was hit by a one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded AND a massive tsunami, and there was no meltdown. Sure they’re still trying to bring it under control, but for it to even still be standing is a testament to the design and build capabilities of the early nuclear providers. Westinghouse have published material (can’t find it now, sorry but it is online) that their new reactors cannot suffer the type of damage the Fukushima plant is experiencing; they’ve been designed to cope with these types of disasters.
All of the forms of generation the greens love so much (sun, wind, biofuel) are more expensive, more lethal and more economically destructive than either coal or nuclear (I mean, have you see the picture of the talings from the Rare Earth processing centres in China?)
As soon as the green fuckwits get out of the way, generation of safe, cheap nuclear power will resume and the poor people of Japan can get on with the business of rebuilding their lives and their country.
Red, this one seems to have slipped through the troll-net.
LikeLike
To the Gantt Guy:
Hmmm….if you are not volunteering to help clean up the melting reactors…..
would you like to go on a date with Anne Coulter?
Menu offerings:
Radioactive shrimp cocktails fresh from Fukushima….
Radioactive boar meat from Germany twenty years after Chernobyl…
Radioactive milk and water from Tokyo
Oh and when your hair starts falling out in clumps, your skin peels off, or maybe later when the cancer and leukemia set in….don’t worry….Japanese government admitted it was a only a 70% meltown….so you are right it wasn’t a “Full” meltdown……they are “protecting” us from a full meltdown by pouring radioactive wastewater into the ocean….that was their backup safety plan when the plants were designed, and it is still the last ditch plan for any nuke plant by the sea…….and we know that corporations and governments would never lie….
P.S. Registered Republican here….. You ever been to Nevada Nuclear Test Site? the geiger counters go crazy because the dust outside of Las Vegas is still is loaded with Beta Radiation from long-ago above ground tests….
IT IS TIME FOR AN ALTERNATIVE TO NUCLEAR AND FOSSIL FUELS!!!
LikeLike
Simon, I’m all for alternatives, but they must be real and realistic alternatives. Demonising nuclear and making coal prohibitively expensive is not the way to make alternatives (read: solar, wind, wave) more attractive. The simple fact is that nuclear, coal and natural gas are the only realistic and reasonably-priced generation mechanisms.
I wasn’t trying to suggesst there’s no danger with nuclear, rather the disgraceful lack of balance in the discourse. It’s like the watermelons are trying to demonise all of the current reasonable generation mechanisms, while pretending solar panels and wind turbines are made out of rose petals by the pixies at the bottom of the garden.
LikeLike