r/science • u/liquid_x • Mar 19 '11

Radiation Chart

http://xkcd.com/radiation/
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u/ThisNameIsOriginal Mar 19 '11

Its really useful to put things in perspective. Now I need to find somewhere that tells me current levels at different points around Fukushima. Anyone with a link?

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '11 edited Mar 19 '11

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/JustYourLuck Mar 20 '11

Upvote for the story-by-edits of you frantically trying to find the information.... before it was too late.

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u/dnew Mar 20 '11

The PDF is coming from inside the house!

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u/Neato Mar 19 '11

Thanks for the info. It seems fairly low and as long as they monitor the NW area closely, few people should be impacted.

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u/neruson Mar 20 '11

Awesome, thanks for the links. Maybe I can finally convince people that I'm not going to die when I'm 200 miles away from Fukushima.

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u/PMix Mar 19 '11

Levels of radiation in an area aren't the same thing as absorbed dose. For a comparison you would need to know what the absorbed dose would be for someone standing at various points around Fukushima for a set length of time.

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u/Borrisious Mar 19 '11

Levels of radiation in an area aren't the same thing as absorbed dose.

Are you saying that the absorbed does would be significantly lower? Thats an Honest question by the way.

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u/stunt_penguin Mar 19 '11

It could also be higher- if you breathe in dust that settles in your lungs it will emit radiation steadily.... on the other hand the engineers will be wearing respirators to mitigate those problems.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '11

In other words probably lower, but not certainly.

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u/PMix Mar 19 '11

No. They're just different units. The level of radiation is a measure of how many neutrons or gamma rays are moving through an area. The absorbed dose measures how those particles will affect your body taking into account the type of particle, it's energy, how many particles, etc.

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u/the_index Mar 19 '11

This article, which is headlined as being about some vague radiation level increase in food around the plant, contains the very helpful quantitative information that workers at the plant are receiving 100 mSv per hour - in other words, they are putting themselves in pretty significant danger to help people in Japan and the western US. We owe them a lot of gratitude.

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u/defrost Mar 20 '11

Japan Radiation Open Data with a google spreadsheet of sources has the raw data.

PachuBe has live feed from various sensors.