Japan has alerted the United States and Canada on possible clogging of their shorelines with some 326,000 tons of tsunami debris expected to reach there by next month.
Releasing the results of its third and more precise computer simulation on the debris on Friday, Japan's Environment Ministry said tons of debris swept away by the March 2011 tsunami were expected to reach North America by next month.
The computer-generated report said major part of the drifting debris, mostly lumber and wooden materials, would start reaching North American shores in April, four months later than initially forecast. Some 105,000 tons is to arrive by June and 221,000 tons by October, the NHK public broadcaster reported quoting Ministry officials.
The Japanese government has provided $6 million to the United States and Canada to help them dispose of the debris. It would also provide the simulation results to the two countries.
The massive tsunami, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, is believed to have swept away 1.5 million tons of wreckage to the Pacific Ocean. Some debris, including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, had already arrived in North America and Hawaii. U.S. makers of the motorbike had offered to undertake necessary repairs free of cost and return the motorcycle to its Japanese owner.
The tsunami had left more than 20,000 people dead or missing besides knocking out the Fukushima nuclear power plant resulting in large-scale radiation leak. More than 160,000 residents in a 30-kilometer radius of the plant were evacuated as radiation leak contaminated the food and water supply.
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