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Additional Radiation Detectors to Be Set Up on U.S. Islands


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.

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