Part of the US’ key radiation warning system was out of service as the country braced for possible exposure to the fallout from a nuclear crisis in Japan.
While no dangerous levels of radiation have reached US shores, some lawmakers have questioned whether the existing monitoring system can adequately safeguard the US against future disasters.
The system is crucial because federal officials use the monitors’ readings to validate the impact of nuclear incidents, then alert local governments and the public.
In California, home to two nuclear plants located close to earthquake fault lines, federal officials said four of the 11 stationary monitors were offline for repairs or maintenance last week. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the machines operate outdoors year-round and periodically need maintenance, but did not fix them until a few days after low levels of radiation began drifting toward the mainland US
About 20 monitors out of 124 nationwide were out of service earlier this week, including units in Texas and Buffalo, New York, on Friday, according to the EPA.
Gaps in the system prompted hearings and inquiries in Washington and Sacramento, California.
“Because the monitoring system ... plays such a critical role in protecting the health and safety of the American people, we will examine how well our current monitoring system has performed in the aftermath of the tragic situation in Japan,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which plans a hearing in the coming weeks on nuclear safety.
EPA officials said the program effectively safeguarded the country against a threat that did not materialize. They said they put portable monitors in place as backups and repaired the permanent ones in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego last weekend.
The EPA’s independent watchdog, Inspector-General Arthur Elkins, said he is considering reviewing the agency’s emergency response planning, including the agency’s RadNet system.
The network, launched after the Cold War and upgraded following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, measures radiation nationwide through dozens of monitors that suck in air samples periodically and pump out real-time readings about radioactive isotopes.
The EPA’s data, as well as samples that numerous federal agencies are collecting in Japan, is sent to the Department of Energy’s National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center in California. Teams there check it against sophisticated computer models that predict how releases at Fukushima could spread across the Pacific.
To save money, EPA relies in part on trained volunteers to regularly change air filters on the RadNet monitors and mail them to a federal lab in Alabama where the data gets a detailed analysis a few days later. Volunteers are also tasked with alerting EPA if something goes wrong with the machine.
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