Bulgaria's health minister has tried to assuage fears of radiation winds reaching the country after Japan nuclear plant blasts, which has spiked demand for the drug potassium iodide.

"Those Bulgarians who are worried about their health over the events happening in Japan should better recall their lessons in geography and see where this country is on the map. They will realize right way that there is nothing to worry about," Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov commented.

As Japan races to avoid a nuclear disaster, some Bulgarians are scrambling to obtain potassium iodide, a drug that can protect people from radiation-induced thyroid cancer.

"There is no need to consume potassium iodide, don't do it. Japan is far away, there is no radiation in Bulgaria, this is just an impossible scenario," the minister added.

Potassium iodide, also known by the chemical symbol KI, is used to saturate the thyroid gland with iodine so that radioactive iodine inhaled or ingested will not be retained by the gland.

For Bulgarians trying to buy the pills, some experts say there is no need for them — and certainly no reason to use them now — because Bulgarians are not being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from the Japanese plants, nor are they likely to be.

Talk that Bulgaria may be affected by radiation waves following the explosions at the Japanese quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is just absurd, according to Bulgarian experts.

If the effort to cool the nuclear fuel inside the reactor fails completely, which is the worst-case and very unlikely a scenario, the resulting release of radiation could not reach Bulgaria because the winds are heading west-eastwards, they say.

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