The Hill News

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Sunday the United States and its territories do not face danger from the nuclear crisis in Japaan.

Chu responded to concerns that the west coast of the U.S. could be at risk of contamination as a result of leaking radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami there 11 days ago.

{mosads}"The people in the United States and U.S. territories are not in danger," and are unlikely to be in danger in the future, Chu said on "Fox News Sunday."

Emergency personnel have tried to control the damaged reactors to prevent them from overheating, which could cause a massive leak of radiation.

Chu reiterated that the situation is not on the same scale of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, even though the U.S. has warned its citizens in Japan to stay at least 50 miles from the plant. The secretary said the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is improv! ing. 

"I think with each passing hour, with each passing day, things are more in control," he said. 

Chu said that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is performing safety reviews of American nuclear plants, but would not speculate if that would lead to a moratorium on new projects or a shutdown of current facilities.

"The NRC is looking at all the reactors and they are a very prudent agency and we'll see what they do," he said.

Chu did say that the U.S. could change the way it decides to locate nuclear power plants in the future. 

"You have to learn from those accidents going forward," he said.