Radiation from Japan nuclear plant arrives on Alaska coast

Scientists at the University of Alaska are concerned about radiation leaking from Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, and the lack of a monitoring plan.

Some radiation has arrived in northern Alaska and along the west coast. That's raised concern over contamination of fish and wildlife. More may be heading toward coastal communitieslike Haines and Skagway.

Douglas Dasher, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, saysradiation levels in Alaskan waters could reach Cold War levels.

"The levels they are projecting in some of the modelsare in the ballpark of what they saw in the North Pacific in the 1960s," he said.

John Kelley, a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, says he's not sure contamination will reach dangerous levels for humans but says without better data, who will know?

"The data they will need is not only past data but current data, and if no one is sampling anything then we won't really know it, will we?

"The general concern was, is the food supply safe? And I don't think anyone can really answer that definitively."

He says much of the monitoring is being done probono by universities, NGOs and state organizations.