Nuke Workers Rush to Gain Control as Winds Shift Towards Tokyo

Persistent offshore winds have aided the heroic efforts of nuclear workers to protect Japan from radiation exposure. For the past week, except for a very brief period when Tokyo measured elevated radiation levels, winds have been blowing radioactive particles out to sea. Because of the favorable winds, most of Japan, except for the area in the immediate vicinity of the stricken power plants, has observed radiation levels close to background levels. However, the winds are quickly changing now. Radiation will soon blow towards Tokyo.

The major population centers of Japan reported near background radiation levels on March 20, 2011.
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Spinach, leaf vegetables and milk withing a radius of 100 miles of the reactor site may have suffered contamination, but Tokyo has been spared by favorable winds. Because iodine -131 has a half life of 8 days, the iodine contamination of milk and spinach is a short-term problem. Reports of contamination of milk and spinach 90 miles from the reactor are concerning but this radiation appears to pose little long-term risk.  

As Japan edged forward in its battle to contain the damage at its ravaged nuclear power plants on Saturday, the government said it had found higher than normal levels of radioactivity in spinach and milk at farms up to 90 miles away from the plants, the first confirmation that the unfolding nuclear crisis has affected the nation’s food supply.

The restoration of stable power to reactor 2 is a huge step towards regaining control of the damaged reactors.

Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant saw a stable source of electricity finally reach one of its crippled nuclear reactor building Sunday, a key step to move ahead in restoring the reactors cooling functions to avoid the disaster from worsening further.

However, a low pressure area developing in the sea of Japan is going to turn winds onshore taking particles from the power plants onshore towards the west, then north, before they may finally be blown offshore. This model run was done by me using NOAA's online trajectory model.
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Then, as a front pushes through and high pressure develops to the north of Japan, winds will shift to the north east, blowing particles towards Tokyo.
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