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by DennisP
1878 days ago
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What makes it even more difficult is natural background radiation. The global average is 2.4 millisieverts/year, with the US averaging 3.1 and Japan averaging 1.5. Medical scans add 0.6 mSv/year. Airline crews get an extra 2 mSv/year. By comparison, atmospheric nuclear tests added 0.11 mSv at their peak in 1963, declining to 0.005 mSv/year today. Chernobyl added 0.04 mSv in 1986, declining to 0.002 today. The nuclear fuel cycle adds 0.0002 to the global average, and is required to be less than 1 mSv for all members of the public. The highest natural background radiation is in Ramsar, Iran, with 6.0 mSv/year. Studies are ongoing but the evidence so far shows no negative health effects. Note that Sieverts are normalized to the health effects on the human body. Any concerns about different types of radioactivity are already accounted for in this measurement. Chernobyl and Fukushima of course caused larger exposures to nearby inhabitants, and these exposures are accounted for in the statistics I mentioned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert |
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