Japan, Guam notified of radioactive seepage from US sub: navy

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon has notified local authorities that trace amounts of radioactivity may have seeped out of a US nuclear missile submarine during a cruise that included stops in Japan and Guam, navy officials said Friday.

An investigation determined that the amount of radioactivity that seeped from a valve was less than half a microcurie, or less than what one would find in a 50-pound bag of lawn fertilizer, a senior US Navy official said.

"Any time there is any discharge or leakage of radioactivity, or radioactive water, no matter how small, we report it to local authorities," the official said.

Japan and Guam were notified of the discovery on Thursday, the official said.

The seepage was detected on July 17 when a gallon of water that had collected in a pipe connected to the nuclear engineering plant spilled onto a sailor while the submarine was in drydock in Honolulu, Hawaii, the official said.

Tests of the sailor showed no radioactivity, but the incident triggered an investigation that led to a valve inside the pipe that was "weeping at a small rate," the official said.

The state of Hawaii was notified on July 25, he said.

The official said a review of logs "determined that the weepage may have been occurring as far back as March when the ship was in Sasebo, Japan and late May (to) mid-June when the ship was in Guam."

"The amount of radiation that was in the water that leaked during those three port visits, is actually less than what you would find in a 50-pound bag of common lawn fertilizer," the official said.