Nuclear Hazard in Japan

Luboš Motl has a nice post on what the units bandied about mean.

One vivid image:

Today, near the worst reactor building in Fukushima, they detected 400 millisieverts per hour: this figure was ultimately confirmed by IAEA (which was, until very recently, trying to downplay all radiation risks in Japan - a fact that may be related to the current Japanese leader of IAEA, Yukiya Amano). I want you - including all fellow big fans of nuclear energy - to understand that this is just a huge number. We have quantified one death to be 5 sieverts above: and the kids playing next to the reactor receive 0.4 sieverts per hour. Thank you, you're welcome.

If you spend twelve hours by playing in the vicinity of the worst reactor of the Fukushima power plant, you will probably die.

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