Unalaska, AK – The Environmental Protection Agency is installing extra radiation monitors in the state of Alaska, and one of them will be placed in Unalaska.

The monitors offer real-time readings of radiation levels, and they also contain filters that are changed regularly and analyzed by an EPA laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama. While the EPA already had radiation monitors in place in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, the agency is setting up new ones in Unalaska and Nome - along with an extra one in Juneau - to cover a greater geographic area across the state, according to an official with the agency.

These monitors are being installed as a reaction to the nuclear crisis in Japan. However, the EPA does not expect to see abnormal levels of radiation in Alaska. At this time, state and federal officials continue to urge the public to avoid taking unnecessary precautions - like the consumption of potassium iodide - that could have harmful side effects.