[californiadisasters] On West Coast of U.S., Much Ado About Very Little Radiation, So Far

U.S. scientists and sensors are poised to detect radioactive fallout from Japan's nuclear accident, but aside from a 'minuscule' amount at a Sacramento station, they've found none.

By Eryn Brown and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

March 19, 2011

Sensors in the United States stood ready Friday to detect any trace of radioactive material blowing across the Pacific from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, 5,000 miles away.

So far, they've pretty much found nothing.

The only positive report from a network of sensors was of a tiny amount of radiation picked up by a super-sensitive detector in Sacramento that is capable of sensing the radioactive isotope xenon-133, created during nuclear fission.

Though scientists said they believed that this came from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, the levels were so "minuscule" they posed no threat to human health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy said in a joint statement Friday afternoon.

The amount that was detected would result in a "dose rate approximately one-millionth of the dose rate that a person normally receives from rocks, bricks, the sun and other natural sources," according to the statement.

Elsewhere, though scientists and equipment sat poised, they weren't finding radioactive surges above normal background radiation levels that exist naturally.

California public health officials were still gathering air samples for radiation testing late Friday, according to Gary Butner, branch chief of radiological health with the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento.

Butner said county volunteers planned to gather samples Friday and Saturday from the state's monitoring stations. Staff members will then crunch the numbers with the help of a physicist through the weekend and post the results on the department website early next week.

They will also post data from the last two years for comparison, to "hopefully minimize some of [the public's] fears and anxiety," Butner said.

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View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-sci-nuclear-radiation-usa-20110319,0,4440461.story

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