Radiation detected 400 miles off Japanese coast

[reACTIONary]

17. I recently had heard a lecture by one of the NRC emergency response team members...

... who helped out with the Fukushima Daiichi accident. He helped take the measurements that established the evacuation zone around the area. The American response team had far more capability than the Japanese did. I asked why that was, and he said that one reason is our experience developing and testing nuclear weapons. We developed a pretty sophisticated radiation detection and monitoring capability.

He briefed the radiation monitoring and reporting that was carried out here in the continental United States. I told him that my intuition was that the Fukushima incident could not really pose a threat to the continental united states and wondered if that was wrong.

His answer was politic. He said something along the lines that scientific expectations would be consistent with my intuition, but public concerns were high and required a serious threat assessment.

I personally don't think that we (continental united states) have anything to be concerned about from this incident.