What are the chances of radiation making it to the east coast of U.S?

Haha I just watched Rachel Maddow talk [snip] about how stupid people in new york are buying iodide pills haha, makes me laugh, stupid people doing stupid stuff. Then the retarded news headline in the papers "PANIC!!, anti-nuke pills"
Want everything to happen over there?


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Guys

I just had a horrible thought


Should the radiation spread far enough over Japan........


Is that volcano still kicking up ash?


Erm well, that would be just the ticket for the radiation to hit a high enough altitude to then hit the US

reply to post by Jazzscapez


Well i was watching Cnn spanish version today and this guy from Peru, nuclear special Phd was talking about if the nuclear thing in Japon gets worst and "xplotes" (which thing wont happen because it doesnt will explote, it will be there just in the air) the radiation goes to the atmosphere and the Jet/wind could took the radiation to the north hemisphere, which is canada, us, and alaska. He advice to stay out of the rain, but i dont know. I'm new on this site, and i just readed you question and i feel like i should tell you what i just hearded on the tv.

Don't be panic thou! God will help, and stay tune on this site which is very intersting.

Love, and a lot light!!! Xoxox

Originally posted by Jazzscapez
Worst case scenario...Could the jet stream bring it to the east coast if it was bad enough?
Should i buy potassium iodide just as a precaution?

The radiation will cover the entire globe with the possible exception of possibly places like the north and south poles. In fact this has happened every time we've had an atmospheric test of nuclear bombs over the last 60 or so years. The atmosphere spread the radiation over pretty much the entire planet eventually but at such a low dose as to not be much above background radiation. However the only people likely to be harmed are those in the proximity of the event, say within roughly 30 km.

And there's no reason to buy potassium iodide to protect yourself against a reactor in Japan.

However if you have a reactor near you, then it may not be a bad idea to have some on hand like the Japanese are being given potassium iodide pills. That way if your local reactor or one reasonably nearby ever melts down, you'll have some, that's the only reason you'd need it. Even then, I wouldn't take it unless officials recommended it, since it has side effects and you don't want to take it if you don't need it. If you are roughly within a 30km radius around a nuclear plant, having some on hand is probably a good idea, however this is an oversimplification since being downwind could be much worse than being upwind.

The Chernobyl disaster effects have been studied in detail, read more about it at that link.

The inhalation dose (internal dose) for the public (during the time between the accident occurring and their evacuation from the area) in what is now the 30 km evacuation zone around the plant has been estimated (based ground deposition of caesium-137) to be between 3 and 150 mSv [between a 1 in 6666.67 and a 1 in 133.33 chance of a fatal cancer