A Geiger counter.

just saw it on TV. Normaly it is 0,003 ms. At 30 km from the plant, it is 0,024. At the plant itself the top was 400 ms, from 1000 ms its dangerous and from 10.000 ms, you have to run away.

ps, flying from Europe to LA is 0,010 ms, so flying is not as safe as you think ;)

what ms means, i dont know :)

ms - mili-Seivert.

Wikipedia:
"The sievert (symbol: Sv) is the SI derived unit of dose equivalent. It attempts to quantitatively evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation as opposed to the physical aspects, which are characterised by the absorbed dose, measured in gray. It is named after Rolf Sievert, a Swedish medical physicist renowned for work on radiation dosage measurement and research into the biological effects of radiation.
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Single Dose Examples

* Eating one banana: 0.0001 mSv
* Dental radiography: 0.005 mSv[1]
* Average dose to people living within 16km of Three Mile Island accident: 0.08 mSv; maximum dose: 1 mSv[2]
* Mammogram: 3 mSv[1]
* Brain CT scan: 0.8–5 mSv[3]
* Chest CT scan: 6–18 mSv[3]
* Gastrointestinal series X-ray investigation: 14 mSv[4]

[edit] Hourly Dose Examples

* Highest recorded radiation at reactor 2, Fukushima I: 8 mSv/hr[5]
* Recorded radiation at Fukushima I on March 15–16: 3–10 mSv/hr
* Highest recorded radiation at Fukushima I: Reactor No. 3 - 1000 mSv/hr briefly on March 16, 2011 [6]
* Highest recorded radiation at Fukushima I: Gate Area - 11 mSv/hr briefly on March 16, 2011 [7]
* Typical dose near Chernobyl reactor 4 and its fragments, shortly after explosion: ≈ 10 000–300 000 mSv/hr

[edit] Yearly Dose Examples

* Living near a nuclear power station: 0.0001–0.01 mSv/year[4][8]
* Living near a coal power station: 0.0003 mSv/year[8]
* Cosmic radiation (from sky) at sea level: 0.24 mSv/year[4]
* Terrestrial radiation (from ground): 0.28 mSv/year[4]
* Natural radiation in the human body: 0.40 mSv/year[4]
* Typical individual's natural background radiation: 2 mSv/year; 1.5 mSv/year for Australians, 3-6 mSv/year for Americans[9][10]
* New York-Tokyo flights for airline crew: 9 mSv/year[9]
* Radon in the average US home: 2 mSv/year[4]
* Smoking 1.5 packs/day: 13 mSv/year[11]
* Current average limit for nuclear workers: 20 mSv/year[9]
* Background radiation in parts of Iran, India and Europe: 50 mSv/year[9]
* Lowest clearly carcinogenic level: 100 mSv/year[9]
* Temporary Emergency Elevated limit for 50 Nuclear Technicians during Fukushima emergency: Increased from standard 100 msv to 250 mSv/year to combat nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Stations 1 through 4t[12]"

I think I have a lifetime dose from the submarine of around 300 mrem? (its a ballpark, its been a few years). That's equivalent to 3 mSv. And our limits were several orders of magnitude under the federal limits, and it was extremely rare for anybody to get anywhere near the USN limits (usually the only people who got near it was the radcon guys doing the initial RC surveys, because they get to crawl around labeling hotspots for a few hours).

A dose of 250 mSv whole body would cause effectively no health issues... as it gets higher, you can get some minor effects. Its the 1 Sv area that starts to become dangerous. You can see the methods they use to make sure the workers remain under the limits... keep the official limits well under the hard and fast ones. :)

The Fukushima 50, the modern day Spartan 300, hope they can stop it.

Well, the media does blow everything out of proportion, so excuse the reaction if it was undue, again, that's about as far from my scope pof comprehension as possible, and in such cases I just try and watch and read as many sources as possible to try and get the mean, moderate account (in other words, I'm out of my depth totally, here, so I take my standard approach, that being to read up on it and talk to others to gain a moderate account and hope to apply previous knowledge and theory--more of an English Major's approach, I suppose...but no level of Utilitarian theory or Homerian poetry can really apply here, can it?) ;)

(This is also a reason for NEVER wanting to be a journalist, even though I want to be a writer someday...it's a very skewered media, I'd prefer not to be part of that, and in any case, I care more for the fiction and theoretica and philophical than media subjects, and I'd hate to have to write for a JOB...do what you lovve, and hopefully for some sort of pay, but not as a job, I'll--SIGH--probably have to teach for that to earn bread...)

Information on the health effects from radiation exposure is very murky, at least in small doses. A lot of our information is taken from the bombs in Japan. By measuring the radioactivity in the building, researchers were able to determine the dose received by many of the survivors.

From there, the data was simply extrapolated backwards to zero dose. The is called the linear no-threshold model. This was often done because, if we have no reason to expose people to radiation, then why risk it?

Recent thought is more along the lines that there is a threshold bellow which there is no negative effect or maybe even a positive one (this is called radiation hormesis ).

In some places, such as Ramsar, Iran, residents get an annual natural dose of as much as 130 mSv (as opposed to ~3mSv for most places).

That being said, 250 mSv sounds like quite a high dose for the workers and I hope that they are alright in the end.

"flying is not as safe as you think ;)"

LOL!

I'm a pilot, and I feel much safer in the air than anywhere else.

Aeronautics Professor*

Anyways, I hope this doesn't blow up for two reasons

1) Obviously I don't want radiation in Japan

2) For my school newspaper I am writing an "April Fool's" Article about Japanese radiation in the U.S. It is supposed to be fake but sound real. But.. if it becomes real it defeats the purpose!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-plant/

Kingdroid, for all the paranoia in N.A. I wouldn't be shocked if your prank gets blown way out of proportions.

Apparantly Vancouver has run out of Iodine tablets because because people are going into panic mode there...

Thank you so much for correcting the good doctor, Kingdroid. It was begging to be done.

OMG - eating 130,000 bananas is the equivilent to smoking 1.5 packets of cigarettes - now that's scary.

Eating 1 banana is eqivilent to living next to a nuclear plant (what are they putting in those bananas these days? that's what I'd like to know.

At the risk of looking like I have no sense of humour, I'll answer that question.
Bananas are full of potassium. Of which, a small percentage is naturally a radioactive isotope. Same with Avocados or any other food with a high content of potassium.

People also have potassium in them so you get a small external dose from sleeping next to someone so you might want to consider that before the next time you sleep with someone...

My son loves bananas, and one time he had to get a blood draw to check on a few medical issues. There was a warning from the testing facility about his potassium levels, and the doctor wrote a note saying "Likes bananas" to "clear" it. I found this hilarious.

"For my school newspaper I am writing an "April Fool's" Article about Japanese radiation in the U.S. It is supposed to be fake but sound real. But.. if it becomes real it defeats the purpose!"

sounds like a horrible idea tbh, the japan situation is off limits for comedy

What?

I can't be a pilot and have a doctorate in aeronautics?

Fine. Ask me any question that only a commercial pilot would know.

are there aliens?

I haven't seen any.

What airline has the easiest flight attendants?

I don't know. I'm a commercial pilot, not an airline transport pilot.

"Ask me any question that only a commercial pilot would know."

Wouldn't we also have to be commercial pilots to know the answer?

I think you would know if I completely bullshitted an answer.

@TMW - i've folded my paper in half lengthways and then folded back the two sides to make the pointy bit. How far down should I now refold each side for maximum flight duration?

Yes, TMW, we would. Which is why we know you're not an aeronautics professor.

My studies, both as a pilot and an aeronautics expert did not include paper airplanes, Maniac.

But you would want to make the wings as long and thin as possible, like a glider. That should theoretically give you maximum flight duration.

@ SacredDigits

If I had to speculate, I'd say British Airways.

"I think you would know if I completely bullshitted an answer." - The Master Warrior.
You mean like the time we asked you what your Ph.D. thesis was about? Because everyone who saw that conversation knew your answer to that was bullshit.