A recently released report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General’s Office has revealed perilous failures in the operation of RadNet, the nationwide radiation monitoring network, in the midst of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The April 19 report, titled ‘Weaknesses in EPA’s Management of the Radiation Network System Demand Attention’, was created as nuclear watchdog groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Nuclear Information Resource Service, raised urgent concerns over the program’s reliability.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) pointed out a litany of problems that have limited the RadNet system’s ability to detect harmful radiation levels, including the following:
— At the time of the Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, 25 of the 124 radiation monitors across the United States were out of service. The average time out of service for these monitors was 130 days.
— The EPA’s inability to acquire replacement parts in a timely manner led to some repair delays that lasted over six months. In one case, a radiation monitor was out of service for 428 days before a contractor was able to fix it.
— Based on a sample study, 50% of radiation monitors had gone […]