Pentagon weighs pullout from Japan hot zone

THE PENTAGON - The Defense Department was considering Monday night ordering the mandatory departure of all American military personnel and their families from the areas of Japan threatened by radiation, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

The government considered such an order after distributing potassium iodide pills, which defend the body from radioactive iodine, to service members of the USS George Washington and their families left ashore after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier abruptly left Yokosuka, Japan, Monday morning.

Complete Coverage: Disaster in Japan
Carrier leaves Japanese port to dodge radiation

The George Washington got underway not to aid in the relief effort but to save itself from radioactive contamination.

The decision to send the George Washington to sea, even though one of its nuclear reactors is down for repairs, came in response to a shift in the wind, which is now blowing increased amounts of radioactivity south over Tokyo toward the American bases at Yokosuka and Atsugi. The winds threaten to dump as much radioactivity in the next 24 hours as in the preceding 10 days.

Navy officers decided they could not allow the George Washington to keep absorbing even low levels of radioactive contamination for the indefinite future. At $4.5 billion, it is one of the Navy's most valuable ships, and the fear is that radiation would be sucked into the ventilation system and leave it contaminated for the rest of its service life.

The situation in Japan has been a fight around the clock to get try and get control of the damaged nuclear power plant north of Tokyo crippled by the earthquake and tsunami that left more than 8,800 people dead.

Workers were forced to evacuate again Monday after smoke was spotted coming from two of the reactors.

There were new concerns Monday night about radiation detected in Japanese crops and in seawater near the plant.

[smilekhp]

Pentagon love to interfere the other countrys' affair by sending the troops, but it's chickend out when it knows there's something the troops can defeat.

[peregrine3]

First of all I am extremely sorry for what the Japanese people are currently enduring. That said, I see no reason for such large deployments of troops in many foreign countries such as Japan, Germany, England etc that are not in harms way and have defense forces of their own. Especially in a time where we find ourselves borrowing from the chinese to buy toilet paper I find it highly inappropiate we prop up foreign economies with our tax dollars, and the money spent in those economies by troops stationed there. This is not a call for isolationism, its a call for sanity.

[jd2408]

What is wrong with our government. This should have been done by now.

[mari1963]

I've always thought it was wrong for families to live overseas with their deployed spouses anyway. Keep the wives and kids in the US. If daddy is serving the wife and kids should STAY HOME! Then we wouldn't have to spend money for housing and travel - it would save millions. DUH!

[erasmus111]

by mari1963 March 22, 2011 8:35 AM EDT
I've always thought it was wrong for families to live overseas with their deployed spouses anyway.

If there was a war going on, I could see your point. Is that what you would want for yourself and kids?

You want to deprive them of having a LIFE? They are serving YOUR country, so I think that you could spare a bit of money for them to have a life.

[jmgray16]

These servicemembers are not deployed, they are forward based for 2-5 years. Do you think it's right to ask someone to be away from his or her family for that long? Pretty heartless. and i guarantee you the improved mental health of the entire family from being together far outweighs the costs. I say this as a military spouse living in Germany. and honestly, the costs involved with the move here were not that much more than moving the family across the country - which happens all the time in the military.

[James93x]

Tokyo mis-assessed the situation. NPPs must be secured by scientific methodology. Their deployment of nature like sea water or hoping that air or snow will save them is nothing more than a myth. America developed sophisticated technologies to reduce high temperatures and control flame. Basic mechanical and chemical technique will resolve this problem for the crippled power cores.

[jmgray16]

For those questioning this, a carrier has 2 reactors and if the ship were to have an incident where they were required to take the reactor offline for some reason (such as failure of the cooling pump) or some mechanical problem in the drive system, the ship would be left adrift. Yes there are back up diesel generators, but those are only for power, not propulsion. There is a reason that Navy ships all have 2 or more engines in more than one engine room. Operating a ship with only one engine does not leave room for some sort of mechanical difficulty. It's the same reason when a passenger plane loses and engine (out of 2) they try to land it as soon as possible.

[hbc17]

What are they waiting for, DO IT!!

[riptide213]

Playing down potential risk with PC spin of stay calm, carry on rhetoric at this stage is counterproductive. It's obviously a mega catastrophe, so take decisive action accordingly. Elected US government once again been slow to objectively acknowledge and expertly react to a serious emerging threat. Prevention is vital to minimize global cross border implications. Worst case scenario not being used as first line of policy decision making. US citizens have been put at increased risk because of political choices to sit back, wait and hope for a best case with a guarded response. Simply is not a good enough government public health and safety strategy in 21st century. Unequivocally acknowledge, inform, and act on worst case danger. Stop playing safe politics. Weather and international travel or commerce routes may spread radioactive particles through borders around the world with ease. This Titanic like industrial disaster within aftermath of a massive natural disaster now mimics or equates to an indiscriminate dirty bomb detonation in a popular first world nation. The post event danger is escalating by the day yet US government with US citizens in harms way is being sluggish to sound the alarm and proactively react. Stop redefining what dangerous levels of unrestrained spewing radioactive debris may be to fit some rosey policy preferred reaction model. Evacuate and kick in all aggressive preventative measures to detect or decontaminate what is essentially now a macro nuclear hazard knocking at all international points of entry doors. This unleashed persistent manmade stealthy foe is invisible to unsuspecting victims, so worst case NEO diligence is only safe bet!

[greco99-2009]

This disaster has been made far worse by the corrupt Nuclear Lobby, including US nuclear companies and their PR agents. These companies are more concerned about their stock price and preserving their bad investment choices (and prior corrupt deals, safety violations, and faulty designs).

Because of this false information from pr spinners the nuclear lobby (and their media manipulators) -- we have failed to act quickly and decisively.

By spreading false stories that indicate there is no real problem or that the radiation is not that hazardous we have grossly underestimated the scope of this ongoing disaster, and we continue to fail to contain this thing.

This failure will affect millions of people, including people in the US. This disaster will affect children and future generations. Just look at the amount of land that is destroyed (and let's hope that does not expand to include the US west coast).

Reactor cores containing plutonium are cracked, the situation is NOT under control.

Urgent action is needed !!!

[erasmus111]

They should have already gone!