Source: PDI
TOKYO—Radiation levels remained a huge worry in Japan on Sunday following a spike in radioactivity in water at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station.
But there has been no indication that people beyond the plant’s immediate vicinity have been exposed to harmful doses.
The operator of the crippled nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said radiation levels were over 1,000 millisieverts per hour at Reactor No. 2. The company also evacuated workers from the reactor’s turbine building.
Here are some facts about radiation and the health dangers it poses:
Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount absorbed by human tissues. One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts and 1 million microsieverts.
People are constantly exposed to some level of natural radiation. They also get exposed to tiny amounts through sitting in airplanes, routine chest or dental X-rays, and larger amounts through medical tests such as CT-scans and MRIs. A single-organ CT scan, for example, gives a radiation dose of about 6,900 microsieverts.
On Sunday afternoon, radiation levels in central Tokyo were around 0.16 microsieverts per hour. That is a level experts describe as minimal, and just below the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 per hour, a range given by the World Nuclear Association. It is also significantly lower than the cosmic radiation of up to 7 microsieverts per hour experienced on a Tokyo-New York flight.
Massive radiation
Below are different levels of massive radiation exposure in a single dose—all measured in millisieverts—and their likely effects on humans, as published by the US Environmental Protection Agency:
50-100: changes in blood chemistry
500: nausea, within hours
700: vomiting
750: hair loss, within 2-3 weeks
900: diarrhea
1,000: hemorrhage
4,000: possible death within 2 months, if no treatment
10,000: destruction of intestinal lining, internal bleeding and death within 1-2 weeks
20,000: damage to the central nervous system and loss of consciousness within minutes, and death within hours or days Reuters
Sources: Taiwan Atomic Energy Council, World Nuclear Association, US Department of Transportation, US Environmental Protection Agency
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TOKYO—Radiation levels remained a huge worry in Japan on Sunday following a spike in radioactivity in water at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station.
But there has been no indication that people beyond the plant’s immediate vicinity have been exposed to harmful doses.
The operator of the crippled nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said radiation levels were over 1,000 millisieverts per hour at Reactor No. 2. The company also evacuated workers from the reactor’s turbine building.
Here are some facts about radiation and the health dangers it poses:
Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount absorbed by human tissues. One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts and 1 million microsieverts.
People are constantly exposed to some level of natural radiation. They also get exposed to tiny amounts through sitting in airplanes, routine chest or dental X-rays, and larger amounts through medical tests such as CT-scans and MRIs. A single-organ CT scan, for example, gives a radiation dose of about 6,900 microsieverts.
On Sunday afternoon, radiation levels in central Tokyo were around 0.16 microsieverts per hour. That is a level experts describe as minimal, and just below the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 per hour, a range given by the World Nuclear Association. It is also significantly lower than the cosmic radiation of up to 7 microsieverts per hour experienced on a Tokyo-New York flight.
Massive radiation
Below are different levels of massive radiation exposure in a single dose—all measured in millisieverts—and their likely effects on humans, as published by the US Environmental Protection Agency:
50-100: changes in blood chemistry
500: nausea, within hours
700: vomiting
750: hair loss, within 2-3 weeks
900: diarrhea
1,000: hemorrhage
4,000: possible death within 2 months, if no treatment
10,000: destruction of intestinal lining, internal bleeding and death within 1-2 weeks
20,000: damage to the central nervous system and loss of consciousness within minutes, and death within hours or days Reuters
Sources: Taiwan Atomic Energy Council, World Nuclear Association, US Department of Transportation, US Environmental Protection Agency
