On March 17, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brought one of its deployable RadNet air monitors to Unalaska to bolster Alaska's capability to gather data on any fallout from the crippled Japan nuclear plants. The agency has six deployable devices across Alaska in Nome, Dutch Harbor and Juneau, and also three fixed monitors in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks.
"It has been set up, and I checked last night and it's reporting data, and I checked it this morning and it wasn't," said Bernd Jilly, chief of the Alaska State Public Health Laboratories, on March 24.
The next day, EPA in Seattle reported that the monitor had a global positioning system glitch, but was up and recording again. The EPA also stationed a person stationed in Unalaska to keep an eye on it. The monitors gather information on any radioactive contaminates in the air and drinking water.
On Monday, the EPA reported that during a detailed analysis of four West Coast RadNet air monitor filters, that trace amounts of radioactive iodine, cesium and tellurium were detected that are consistent with the Japanese nuclear incident. They are, the EPA emphasized, "hundreds of thousands to millions of times below levels of concern."
"In a typical day, Americans receive doses of radiation from natural sources like rocks, bricks and the sun that are about 100,000 times higher than what we have detected coming from Japan," according to an EPA news release. "For example, the levels we're seeing coming form Japan are 100,000 times lower than what you get from taking a round-trip international flight."
In response to queries from the public, the Unalaska Department of Public Safety issued the following news release on Thursday: "The City of Unalaska is aware of the public's concern regarding radiation releases from the Fukushima nuclear plant. To that end we have provided space at the UMC/Coast Guard facility for radiation monitoring equipment that has been provided by the EPA. The EPA is monitoring this equipment daily with personnel here on the island. In addition we are providing the following links to web sites with the latest information that we are also monitoring.
• The State of Alaska Department of Health & Social Services for the latest news releases from the state web link: http://www.hss.state.ak.us/
•The United States Environmental Protection Agency - RadNet Data web link: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/deployable-data/radnet-dutchharbor-exp-rate.html
•The City of Unalaska: From the home page http://unalaska-ak.us/ click on "helpful links" and near the bottom of the web page click on RadNet Monitoring Data - Dutch Harbor, AK US EPA there you will find the link to the EPA's RadNet site for the unit located at the UMC/Coast Guard Dock Facility."
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