Overview

RadNet is a national network of more than 200 monitoring stations distributed across all 50 states and the American Territories. Each station regularly samples the nation's air, precipitation, drinking water, or pasturized milk for a variety of radionuclides (e.g., iodine-131) and radiation types (e.g., gross beta (b)). During its operation beginning in1973, RadNet's predecessor, ERAMS, collected over a half million high quality environmental samples. The current database primarily provides data that was collected between 1978 and present.. Some older "pre-ERAMS" data is included, and additional data will be added soon. Click here to view the User's Guide, which provides more detail on the data.

RadNet normally operates in a "routine" mode, sampling radiation in all media on a regularly defined schedule. In the event of a threat of a significant radiation release RadNet operates in an "emergency" (or alert) mode, accelerating the frequency of sampling and generating many more data records for a given period of time compared to its routine mode. This was done in 1979 following the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident in the U.S., in 1986 following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in the Soviet Union, in 1999 following the Tokaimura nuclear fuel processing facility accident in Japan, in 2000 following the Los Alamos and Hanford wildfires in the U.S., and in 2001 following the terrorist attacks in the U.S.

RadNet data provides a means to estimate levels of radioactivity in the environment, including background radiation as well as radioactive fallout from atomic weapons testing, nuclear accidents, and other intrusions of radioactive materials. RadNet also provides the historical data needed to estimate long-term trends in environmental radiation levels.

See the Nuclear/RadNet Timeline to help identify the occurrence of changes or events involving the monitoring system. Also, see Legal Basis for additional background.

Overview

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