Rain over US has Radiation

The rainwater over Boston, Massachusetts has radiation, which could be side effect of the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was severely damaged during the tsunami and earthquake of the past March 11. Health officials informed that the radiation levels were too low to be a health threat.

The Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner, John Auerbach, informed that a routine check of the water supply in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington showed elevated levels of radiation. However, air samples in the same Massachusetts location did not show elevated levels.

If the plant should explode, experts explained that the radioiodine has a half-life of eight days, this means that only half the level of radiation will be present in eight days. Ronald Ballinger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stated that if the plant melts, the radiation over Massachusetts would be dangerous to humans. However, humans are exposed, on a daily bases, to radiation from natural sources like the sun with doses that are 100,000 times higher than the ones detected in US coming from Japan.

Source: Indianexpress.com