Japanese Accident - 4000 Times Normal

[sbrightwell@shepmill.com (Shane Brightwell)]

Indeed, "4000 times normal" seems ambiguous.  Where was this measured?

One early report stated that the site boundary exposure rate levels reached
a maximum of about 80 mR/hr.  An average background exposure rate of about
20 uR/hr (at the boundary) times 4000 equals about 80 mR/hr.  What catches
my attention is the magnitude of an incident (assuming a point source,
probably 100 feet or so from the site boundary) that could have caused 80
mR/hr at the boundary.

>>But he said that a ``criticality incident'' may have caused the accident,
>>which temporarily caused radiation levels to race up 4,000 times higher than
>>normal.
>
>To me, 4,000 times higher than normal seems a petty number to have caused
>what later is described as 
>
>>what would be Japan's worst injury from a nuclear accident.
>
>My reasoning is that you need at least one or several Sv/h to call someone
>heavily exposed. That also means that the normal dose rate level would be
>in the 0,25 - 1 mSV/h region which to me seems way too high or am I missing
>something here? 
>
>
>     Dr. Bjorn Sandstrom         Tel: +46-90- 10 67 43
>     FOA                      Mobile: +46-70-666 67 43   
>     SE-901 82 Umea              Fax: +46-90- 10 68 03
>     Sweden               E-mail: sandstrom@ume.foa.se
>************************************************************************
>The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
>information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
>

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html