Is there any prospect of the radioactive cloud from Japan reaching the UK, like the Chernobyl one?

[lambslettuce]

They've just been talking about it on Sky News Press Preview, comparing it to Chernobyl. Some Welsh farmers weren't allowed to sell their lambs for years after Chernobyl, because their land was found to be contaminated by radioactive rain.

Can't they 'seed' the cloud to rain over the ocean? Or do something else to minimise the extent of its damage?

If they are saying it is comparable to chernobyl then they are wrong. chernobyl was a situation of a reactor core exposed to the atmosphere on fire, pumping out radioactive particles. The plants in Japan are at risk (perhaps happening already) of meltdown. Even if meltdown happens then as long as the containment structure reamins intact there won't be a widespread emitting of radioactive particles.

Its totally different - the BWR reactors are very well contained and its highly unlikely there could be any major release there at all even in the worst case scenario.

Anyone comparing to Chernobyl is being v irresponsible and scaremongering imo

OK, thanks, they are continuing to compare it to Chernobyl on the radio, though.

I agree CMOT. It is very serious - but it isnt globally serious. I am actually in awe of how well built they have been. To do as well as they have with a M9 earthquake AND a tsunami. Well - hats off to the engineers and to those working on it with such courage now.

Seconded, kitten

A couple of points to reassure you:

1. the situation in Fukushima is nowhere near being on the scale of Chernobyl - Chernobyl was rated a maximum 7 out 7 on the international scale of nuclear accidents, the situation in Fukushima is currently rated 4 (below the 3 Mile Island incident). A small amount of mildly radioactive material has been released into the atmosphere, but there is no 'radioactive cloud'.

2. Chernobyl is less than 1,500 miles from the UK and wind patterns happened to spread the fallout directly in the UK's direction. Fukushima is about 6,000 miles from the UK and you have either the entire Asian and European land mass in the way, or in the other direction the entire Pacific ocean, north American continent, and Atlantic ocean.

I had to forceably shut my mouth it was so wide open inshock when i saw the title of this thread.

Japan is on the other side of theplanet. literally. Its as far away as you can get without coming back on yourself. If a radioactive cloud got all the way accross here, then a couple of lambs dieing would be the least of our worries.

hear hear kitten.

I agree with Kitten.
some of the reporting in this country is melodramatic.

I thought this blog post seemed very sensible and informative.

FWIW, I'm still planning to travel to Japan (with my children) next month - my plans are more likely to be affected by the planned rolling power cuts than any worries over radiation. Unless anything very dramatic happens, that is, like a huge aftershock blowing a reactor wide open - but if the reactors withstood the 5th largest earthquake ever recorded in the world, chances are they'll make it through a big aftershock.