have decided to keep a track on the levels of radiation, taking the figures from the Japan times which takes readings at about 5pm every day. I do not profess to understand how everything works, but I felt it a good idea to put this up. Japan is still open! And this is the second day of such a graph.
I have selected several prefectures, including my own, which are round Fukushima.
I have not included Ibaraki, as that just stretches the graph up a lot, and trying to add Fukushima will just be silly!
Just to put it into perspective.
All this radiation is measured in microsieverts per hour. Just to put it into perspective, a chest X-ray will see you get blasted by 50 microsieverts, a flight from tokyo to New York and back, will see you subjected to 190 microsieverts, and should you require a serious stomach X-ray, thats 600 microsieverts.
Also, the average person per year, through using the microwave and other objects will receive 2400 microsieverts. A CAT scan will see you walloped with 6900 microsieverts, and the maximum a nuclear power worker is allowed is 50,000 microsieverts.
Finally, at 100,000 microsieverts, your risk of cancer will increase! By a massive 0.5%!
So, I have my iodine tablets, but I am not unduly worried!
2 comments:
Just to add to the confusion, but it's an important point that people are missing. This is not the same as "background" radiation that you might receive from the sun or certain rocks, nor is it the same as an external irradiation event such as a chest x-ray, which does not release radioactive isotopes into the air around you, but merely sends gamma waves through you over a matter of seconds. This is a continuous, ongoing release of not only increased "background" radiation that will grow and remain constant over YEARS and even LIFETIMES in some places, but also is an internal radiation release of particles that, should they lodge in your body, will be up close and personal, releasing radioactivity directly into your cells continuously until/unless they are flushed by the body--in some cases, your entire life.
We REALLY need to get the difference!
If I have read things properly, then the majorly dangerous one should it get airborne, would be the plutonium. Which has been found outside the reactors. Mainly underneath, thanks to a partial meltdown. Which is where the metal melts. Big difference between this and Chernobyl is that Chernobyl burst into flames, sending plutonium airborne. Whereas here, staff can, essentially, scoop it up with some good rubber gloves! (OK, it is a little more complex than that, but I aint no nuke scientist!)
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