Fukushima did not just suffer meltdowns, or even melt-throughs …
It suffered melt-OUTS … where the nuclear core of at least one reactor was spread all over Japan [7].
In addition, the Environmental Research Department, SRI Center for Physical Sciences and Technology in Vilnius, Lithuania reported [8] in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity:
Analyses of (131)I, (137)Cs and (134)Cs in airborne aerosols were carried out in daily samples in Vilnius, Lithuania after the Fukushima accident during the period of March-April, 2011.
***
The activity ratio of (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu in the aerosol sample was 1.2, indicating a presence of the spent fuel of different origin than that of the Chernobyl accident.
(“Pu” is short for plutonium.) Fukushima is 4,988 miles [9] from Vilnius, Lithuania. So the plutonium traveled quite a distance.
Today, EneNews reports [10] that a fuel fragment from Fukushima has been found in Norway:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions [11], Atmospheric removal times of the aerosol-bound radionuclides 137Cs and 131I during the months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident – a constraint for air quality and climate models, May 2012: Hot particles (particles that carry very high radioactivity, e.g., fragments of the nuclear fuel) were present in the FD-NPP plume.
[12]
Elsevier (academic publisher) — Fukushima Accident: Radioactivity Impact on the Environment [13], Pavel P. Povinec, Katsumi Hirose, Michio Aoyama, 2013: Paatero et al. (2012) estimated that a significant part of the Fukushima-derived radioactivity is in hot particles from autoradiogram [14] of a filter sample from 1 to 4 April 2011 at Mt. Zeppelin, Ny-Alesund, Svalbard.
Poster for Alaska Marine Science Symposium (Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands) — Fukushima fallout: Aerial deposition on the sea ice scenario and wildlife health implications to ice-associated seals [15], Jan. 20, 2014: Exposure to fallout while on ice in 2011 [...] Models suggest pinnipeds may have been exposed while on ice to the following: [...] Hot particles, nuclear fuel fragments, were detected in air samples taken in Svalbard, Norway (Paatero et al. 2012).
Fukushima is 10632 kilometers – or 6,606 miles [17] -from Svalbard, Norway.
Moreover, the distance is actually much further … because it took a circuitous route from Fukushima to Norway.
As ENENews reports [10]:
(Paatero et al. 2012) Journal of Environmental Radioactivity [18], Airborne fission products in the High Arctic after the Fukushima nuclear accident: It is evident that the plume arriving in Svalbard did not come from Europe but directly from North America [...] [Hot particles are] either fragments of the nuclear fuel or particles formed by the interactions between condensed radionuclides, nuclear fuel, and structural materials of the reactor [...] Based on the total beta, 137Cs and 134Cs activity content [...] on the filter it can be estimated that a significant part of the activity related to Fukushima was in hot particles. So far the authors are not aware of any other reports concerning hot particles from the Fukushima accident. [...] the radionuclides emitted into the atmosphere were quickly dispersed around practically the whole northern hemisphere within a couple of weeks.
[19]
In other words, the hot particles from Fukushima traveled to North American, and then to Europe.
This is only logical.
We noted [20] 2 days after the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami:
The jet stream passes right over Japan. The jet stream was noticed in the 1920′s by a Japanese meteorologist near Mount Fuji [21], and the Japanese launched balloon bombs into the jetstream to attack America during WWII [22].
(Indeed, U.S. nuclear authorities were very concerned [23] about the West Coast getting hit by Fukushima radiation … but they covered it up [23].)
So the Fukushima hot particles traveled from from Japan to the West Coast of North America … and then were carried by wind currents from there.
It’s approximately 5,000 miles [24] from Fukushima to the closest part of North America. It’s another 4,298 [25] miles from San Francisco to Svalbard, Norway.
So the hot particle traveled roughly 9,298 miles from Fukushima to Norway.
That's a long way - and crosses both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - as shown by this rough mock-up using Google maps:
[26]
This is not a total surprise, given that - on April 2, 2011 - the Norwegian Institute for Air Research [27] modeled releases from Fukushima hitting Norway and other parts of Europe:
And a French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety [28] from March 2011 showed the same thing [29] (click link [29] for video animation):
[30]