nuclear-news

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements  Science News By Janet Ralof

Collectively, Americans now receive more than twice as much radiation each year as in the 1980s. That’s according to a new tally by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Of course, the operant word here is collectively. NCRP isn’t saying every individual is getting twice as big an annual radiation dose, only that if you sum up doses to the entire population each year, that big figure has doubled and more over the past two decades or so…………………..the increase stems largely from an increase in medical procedures that rely on radiation — from conventional diagnostic X-rays and CT scans to radiotherapy for cancer………………………Airline crews receive the highest average occupational exposures to radiation — a little more than 3 millisieverts annually. (The source: cosmic rays  — mainly protons, alpha particles and atomic nuclei — encountered flying high above the atmosphere.) What about nuclear-plant workers? They sustain annual radiation doses about one-third smaller…………………..

May 6, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized