<p>The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, in a joint statement, said the minuscule radiation detected by one of its monitoring stations in Sacramento (California) was of similar level of the radioactive isotope Xenon-133 -- noble gas produced during nuclear fission that poses no concern at the detected level.<br /><br />"It was consistent with a release from the Fukushima reactors in Northern Japan," the statement said. The levels detected were approximately 0.1 disintegrations per second per cubic meter of air (0.1 Bq/m3), which results in approximately one-millionth of the dose rate that a person normally receives from rocks, bricks, the sun and other natural background sources, it stated.<br /><br />"These types of readings remain consistent with our expectations since the onset of this tragedy, and are to be expected in the coming days," agencies said.<br /><br />Following the explosion of the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine in 1986 – the worst nuclear accident in world history – air monitoring in the United States also picked up trace amounts of radioactive particles, less than 1,000th of the estimated annual dose from natural sources for a typical person, it added.</p>
<p>The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, in a joint statement, said the minuscule radiation detected by one of its monitoring stations in Sacramento (California) was of similar level of the radioactive isotope Xenon-133 -- noble gas produced during nuclear fission that poses no concern at the detected level.<br /><br />"It was consistent with a release from the Fukushima reactors in Northern Japan," the statement said. The levels detected were approximately 0.1 disintegrations per second per cubic meter of air (0.1 Bq/m3), which results in approximately one-millionth of the dose rate that a person normally receives from rocks, bricks, the sun and other natural background sources, it stated.<br /><br />"These types of readings remain consistent with our expectations since the onset of this tragedy, and are to be expected in the coming days," agencies said.<br /><br />Following the explosion of the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine in 1986 – the worst nuclear accident in world history – air monitoring in the United States also picked up trace amounts of radioactive particles, less than 1,000th of the estimated annual dose from natural sources for a typical person, it added.</p>