News today in the New York Times that the U.S. aircraft carrier, Ronald Reagan, stationed 100 miles offshore from Japan had to be moved to because it was in the plume of radioactivity from the failing reactors on the Japanese coast. The questions now that have to be answered honestly by our government officials are, ““Is nuclear fallout from this disaster now in the jetstream? What is the real threat to us here on the coast from nuclear fallout that may be traveling in the jetstream? Can the fallout reach us if it does not go into the jetstream?
These are not theoretical questions posed by some niche anti-nuclear coalition. The very fears that anti-nuclear protestors of the 70s had, have come to pass. Three plants, being run in what appears to be questionable ways (from reports on the number of accidents that they were having prior to the tsunami), are now in what can only be called an “out of control” situation, with the likelyhood, again according to this mornings New York Times, that we may be exposed to radiation for months to come. The statements from Japanese government officials and nuclear power plant representatives have been confusing and contradictory. The things they optimistically stated were either wrong or outright inaccuracies.
On the other hand, a phony map of a supposed nuclear fallout plume from the plants is circulating on the Internet. It is most definitely a hoax, as it contains spelling errors and the organization who’s logo is on it has disavowed any knowledge of it. http://www.australian-radiation-services.com.au/
What appears to be an accurate forecast map of the Pacific Jetstream appears to be at http://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display_alt.cgi?a=npac_250
This seems to show the jetstream mainly south of Washington state at the present time of this writing (Monday, 14 March 2011). You will need Adobe Flash to view this map as an animation, so those with iPad’s will need to move to a computer that supports Flash. Stormsurfing is a group using NOAA data to run forecast simulations, and has been around for a number of years. They are NOT making any predictions on radiation fallout from these maps. They are simply informative on the jetstream in general.
This web site will continue to follow these stories and ask our government officials about steps being taken, and we are hoping our local news organizations on the Peninsula will take this story extremely seriously.