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U.S. Energy Secretary Orders Air Monitor Data Released From Uranium Plant Near School

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has ordered his agency to release more than four years' worth of data from air monitors near an Ohio school where trace amounts of radioactive material were discovered.

Perry says the data from 2015 through the first quarter of this year comes from six air monitoring stations on Energy Department property and ten in the surrounding southern Ohio community.

Perry told Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in a letter Monday the data was provided to Pike County authorities, and to the Ohio Department of Health and the state Environmental Protection Agency.

Zahn's Corner Middle School was closed last week while more tests are done and health impacts are evaluated.

The school is several miles from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which produced enriched uranium until 2001.

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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