By VERONIKA OLEKSYN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 23, 2011; 2:20 PM

VIENNA -- Varying levels of Nuclear of fallout from a damaged power
plant in Japan have reached Iceland and are expected in France and
elsewhere in Europe, experts said Wednesday, but stressed they don't
pose a health risk.

Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex was hit March 11 by a huge
earthquake and massive tsunami, causing it to release radiation, and
sparking fears of widespread contamination.

A plume carrying trace amounts of radioactive iodine has been detected
in Iceland, the country's Radiation Safety Authority said. what was
found in European countries in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
that spewed radiation over a large distance.

Recollections of the accident's aftermath continue to haunt many
Europeans, putting them on edge as they watch the Japanese nuclear
crisis unfold.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that the overall
situation at the Fukushima plant remains of serious concern. The
deposition of radioactive iodine and cesium varies across 10 prefectures
on a day to day basis but "the trend is generally upward," said Graham
Andrew, senior adviser to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.

In contrast, environmental radiation monitoring in the Fukushima
prefecture outside the 20 kilometer evacuation zone shows mostly
decreasingly values, he added.

French authorities said very weakly contaminated air is expected to
reach France on Wednesday while Germany's Federal Office for Radiation
Protection said if and when radiation arrived it would be in marginal
amounts that would pose neither a risk to humans or the environment.

Gerhard Wotawa, an expert at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology
and Geodynamics, said the amounts of radiation of what people are
normally exposed to, adding that doctors, pilots and others are often
confronted with much higher concentrations.

For those close to the crippled Japanese plant, the situation is very
different - and could keep getting worse.

According to the Austrian institute, local weather conditions at the end
of the week could bring more radioactivity inland instead of out into
the Pacific.

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