U.S. Sees No Serious Concern Over Fallout

An Energy Department official said today he does not expect fallout from the Soviet nuclear accident to be a serious concern to Americans when it reaches the United States.

“We do not anticipate any fallout to the degree that it would be a serious public concern,” James Vaughn, acting assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told the Senate subcommittee on energy research and development.

Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) asked Vaughn if the assessment would hold should a reported fire at the nuclear facility continue.

“That is my best judgment, but obviously based on very limited knowledge,” Vaughn said. “Several people have commented that the basic direction of the movement of the cloud initially was counter to the winds and movements expected in that area.”

sh Monitoring to Increase

The Environmental Protection Agency said today that it will increase the monitoring of radiation in the air above the United States following the Soviet nuclear accident.

Charlie Porter, director of the Eastern Environmental Radiation Facility in Montgomery, Ala., said his agency is the gathering point for data from fallout detection stations in all 50 states. It is an arm of the Environmental Protection Agency.

If the radioactive cloud from the plant near Kiev ascends to 15,000 feet or higher, it would probably pass over the polar ice cap, move across Canada and into the northwestern United States, Porter said.

He said, however, that radioactive materials have been known to circle the Earth several times before falling to the ground.

“It depends on the weather,” Porter said. “If we have a storm in the Midwest, it might reach the ground there. Other times it might not reach the ground at all.”