The Obama administration is setting up more radiation monitors on the state of Hawaii, as well as on other islands covered by the United States, the environmental regulators informed on Tuesday.

The government is deploying radiation detectors on the islands even though it is not expecting harmful radiation levels coming from the quake-hit nuclear power plants in Japan to reach the soils of United States.

A notice was posted on the website of the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, saying it has plans to collaborate with federal agencies to put additional radiation detectors on the western part of the United States and other U.S. territories.

An official from EPA said that there were already seven monitors being deployed to three U.S. islands. Three monitors were sent to Aleutian Islands in Alaska and two monitors each to Hawaii and Guam. According to the official, the monitors were sent “in an abundance of caution.”

The EPA official, who refused to be named, also said that the agency has 40 more detectors that could be dispatched. These detectors will enhance the several monitors already installed in the entire 50 states of U.S., a Democratic congressional said.

Japan has been trying to deal with the damage done on the nuclear power plants since the earthquake and tsunami has hit the country on Friday. U.S. officials have already advised many American citizens around the area of the Fukushima nuclear complex to evacuate as soon as possible.

However, U.S. officials are not expecting any harmful radiation from the devastated country to reach the borders of the United States. Still, EPA will continue tracking the radiation levels from the radiation detectors through its Internet database.

Four U.S. hostages were shot dead on a private yacht last Tuesday. The incident was the deadliest yet involving Americans who were kidnapped for ransom in the extremely dangerous coasts off Somalia.

The hostages were shot by the pirates before Special Forces from America boarded the vessel, according to a statement from the U.S. military.

The U.S. troops took control of the ship and killed two pirates. Fifteen other pirates were found on the site and were taken into custody. The military said the U.S. Special Forces found two dead pirates when they arrived. However, the pirates were not slain by the U.S. forces.

According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the government of United States was deeply upset and saddened by the death of four kidnapped American citizens. The murder was a terrible act that emphasized the need for more worldwide collaboration against pirates.

Although pirate gangs usually target big merchant ships with oil tankers as the prize, kidnapping foreigners gets them even higher ransoms. At the end of January, there were about 750 pirate hostages.

The American hostages killed on Tuesday were Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay from Seattle, as well as Jean and Scott Adam who are from California.

On Tuesday morning, negotiations had already been under the way with the pirates. But, U.S. military said a pirate fired a grenade at the guided-missile USS Sterett without any warning. Then, gunfire burst out on the pirated vessel.

Head of U.S. naval forces in the region Vice Admiral Mark Fox said they intended to go through a negotiated process and to never reach a point where there would actually be gunfire.