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A Handy Radiation Dose Chart From XKCD

Posted by timothy on from the is-there-anything-xkcd-can't-do? dept.

An anonymous reader points out Randall Munroe's latest contribution to public health awareness, a "chart of how much ionizing radiation a person can absorb from various sources, compared visually. 1 Sievert will make you sick, many more will kill you, however, even small doses cumulatively increase cancer risk." It's a good way to think about the difference between Chernobyl and Fukushima.

1 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cute, but not accurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    the real unit behind the sievert is the J/s

    This is actually completely wrong. The Sievert is based on the Gray, which is defined in terms of J/kg. For a fixed mass, it's J, energy. It makes no sense to say "exposed to 1 Sievert for 1 second". You would have to say "exposed to 1 Sievert per second for 1 second".