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Researcher: Californians don't need to worry about Fukushima radiation
File photo: Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) Secretary General Shunichi Tanaka (R, w/white helmet) inspects the radioactive water-leaked plumbing with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture, on April 13, 2013.
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Japan's nuclear watchdog is considering raising the danger level at the Fukushima plant to "serious." That's after 300 tons of contaminated water leaked from a holding tank there — some of it possibly reaching the Pacific.
Kei Iwamoto, a radiation researcher with UCLA, says the pollution may pose a threat to the immediate area — but beachgoers in California shouldn't worry.
"The ocean is so large and we are so far away. You know that 300 tons is equivalent to a drop in 50,000 Olympic-sized pools. So it's a huge dilution. And what we're going to see over here is going to be undetectable."
Officials with the nuclear plant are still hunting the source of the leaks.
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