Extremely tiny levels of radiation from Japan reached California early Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, but emphasized that no radiation levels representing a threat to public health have been detected.
Detectors in Southern California have picked up no radiation so far.
EPA confirmed an earlier report from the Associated Press that readings from a Sacramento measuring station tracked by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization.
The extremely sensitive detector in Sacramento is used to pick up tiny quantities of radioisotopes that might reveal undeground nuclear tests elsewhere in the world, the agency said.
It detected minute quantities of xenon-133, which was “determined to be consistent with a release from the Fukushima reactors in northern Japan.”
The amount was one-millionth the dosage that might be received from bricks, rocks, the sun and other background sources.
The agency said its Radnet system of detectors, meanwhile, had picked up no radiation levels of concern.
Experts including physicists at Chapman University and UC Irvine say any radiation reaching the United States would be extremely dilute and would present no health risk.
If any trace levels reach Southern California, it would most likely be in the afternoon, said Menas Kafatos, founding dean of the Schmid College of Science at Chapman, which uses satellite data to make forecasts including Pacific winds.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District is posting daily updates on its website on readings from Southern California radiation monitors, including one in Anaheim. They detected no radiation increases Friday.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if very small amounts were detected,” said Philip Fine, the district’s atmospheric measurements manager. “But these sensors are very, very sensitive. We would detect increases even at levels well below any type of significant health risk.”
The district is working with public health agencies to monitor the situation, he said.
U.S. officials, including President Obama and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, say they expect no harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States.
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