Rainwater across US contaminated with nuclear radiation linked to Japan

Daily Mail, Mar. 28, 2011

Trace amounts of radioactive iodine linked to Japan's crippled nuclear power station have turned up in rainwater samples as far away as Massachusetts during the past week.

The low level of radioiodine-131 detected in precipitation at a sample location in Massachusetts is comparable to findings in California, Washington state and Pennsylvania.

The news comes as flaws in the US government’s radiation alert network have left a stretch of coastline between Los Angeles and San Francisco without a key real-time warning system in the event of a nuclear emergency.

Six of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 12 California sensors are sending data with ‘anomalies’ to the laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama, that tests radiation levels, said Mike Bandrowski, manager of the EPA’s radiation programme.

Full story