Japan nuclear agency seeks Fukushima alert level upgrade

*sigh*. This is why the media shouldn't do science. 100 milliseverts is the radiation a plant worker should be exposed to over 5 years. But that figure is for ionizing radiation, something that can cause damage. The radiation measured is Beta Radiation, which is incapable of penetrating human skin. Crisis averted.

This is also the kind of reporting that keeps an excellent source of energy from being adopted widely, because all the "Chicken Littles" come out when you say 'nuclear'.

It also very neatly ignores that the 5 year limit for a nuclear worker isn't the limit that does harm. The safety limits were set at levels near the limits of detection.

Good way to get laid off for too much radiation? Expose your detector to sun light.

I wish Tepco good luck in the clean up, shame they couldn't put in the effort to do a corporate clean up.

~

Side note, another popular trend in nuclear chicken littling is saying that having the fuel rods touch each other will cause an exposion, and that child thyroid issues have hugely spiked on the west coast of NA.