Radiation leaps after Japan plant blasts

[Skip_In_Boulder]

By Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan warned radiation levels had become "significantly" higher around a quake-stricken nuclear power plant on Tuesday after explosions at two reactors, and the French embassy said a low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors and conserve power, underscoring the dramatic escalation of Japan's nuclear crisis, the world's most serious since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

{snip}

The French Embassy in Tokyo warned in an 1 a.m. British time advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach the capital -- 240 km (150 miles) south of the plant -- in about 10 hours.

Radiation levels in the city of Maebashi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Tokyo were up to 10 times normal levels, Kyodo news agency said. Only low levels were found in the capital itself, which so far were "not a problem," city officials said.

{snip}

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, talking of levels of radiation at the No. 4 reactor, said: "There is definitely a possibility that this could affect people's bodies."

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Radiation_leaps_after_Japan_plant_blasts,_warnings_for_Tokyo.html?cid=29698946

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Now they have detected it in Vladivostok

Radiation levels rise in Russian city of Vladivostok, 500 miles northwest of Japanese nuclear plant, but stay within normal levels - Reuters

It is now in the jet stream

[Skip_In_Boulder]

2. I saw that in passing somewhere

This is just seriously going into the toilet rapidly.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Vlad means it is in the upper stream

but I was told earlier today that was not happening.