UN: Radioactive Plume Could Come to SoCal By Friday
Watch Cheryl Getuiza's report.
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LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- The United Nations projected Wednesday that the radioactive plume coming from failed Japanese reactors could come to across the Pacific by the end of the week.
The forecast explained that the plume will lose radioactive force as it travels and may not even be detectable by the time it reaches Southern California.
The projection, made by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, is based on patterns of Pacific winds and gives no information about actual radiation levels. It is likely to change if the weather shifts over the next few days.
The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 also made its way to the West Coast in 10 days, but radiation levels were too low to register.
In the case that the plumes do make it ashore, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it will deploy additional electronic monitors to measure radiation levels in the air.
The monitors, which detect gamma radiation and radioactive particles, will be set up in "parts of the Western U.S. and U.S. territories," the agency said in a statement.
But the agency is refusing to say exactly where those monitors will be placed.
The EPA has 124 air monitors, which provide hourly readings, already in place in its "Rad-Net" system to measure radiation.
There are already 12 stationed across California, including Los Angeles, Riverside, Anaheim, San Bernardino and San Diego.
Many of these sampling stations have been in place since the 1950s.
The monitoring system was upgraded in the wake of 9/11.
For a live look at a radiation monitor at the offices of Enviroreporter.com in Santa Monica log into
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