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"If you're basing radiation safety procedures on an internet PNG and things go wrong, you have no one to blame but yourself."

Japan's nuclear regulators were using a fuzzy JPG file when they licensed all those reactors in a tsunami zone. Chernobyl was designed with a GIF.

The EPA guidelines for emergencies are very interesting: doses linked with increased cancer risk are allowed during property and life saving.

Aside from this chart, what other resources are around xkcd.com that are not mentioned in the main page?

I feel like I'm losing big information here.

This was posted today on the XKCD blag [sic], which is distinct from the comic feed.

http://blag.xkcd.com/

I wonder what "clearly linked to increased cancer risk" actually means.

I don't have any idea whether that means it's more or less dangerous than, say, smoking.

It should be noted that up to 4,000 microSieverts was measured near the plants. Measurements have been in the 3,000 mSV range. That's over the 2K mSV "severe radiation poisoning" level cited in the chart

mSv stands for milli-Sievert, and uSv is micro-Sievert. 4000 uSv would be equivalent to 4 mSv, which is where Randall has it listed.

Dammit. Thanks for the correction. I meant MICRO-Sievert.

Radiation Chart