A RADIATION leak from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power station poses no risk for Hertfordshire residents, a scientist has said.

Despite conceding that iodine-131 was “pretty dispersed” and likely to have reached the county, the Health Protection Agency’s Michael Clarke insisted it was nothing to worry about.

The radioactive isotope has been detected at hi-tech monitoring stations in Glasgow and Oxfordshire, following damage to the Japanese plant after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Dr Clarke said: “It [the radiation] has come 12,000 miles and will be pretty dispersed.”

But asked if there was any health risk to people in Hertfordshire he said: “No.

“They are trace levels.

“Radiation is very detectable.”

He said harmful smoke streaming from some of Japan’s crippled oil refineries poses a greater danger but is more difficult to detect.