The Natural Philosopher wrote:

DEFRA's own statistics make interesting readings.

50% of all radiation we currently receive is from natural RADON.
14% is from X-rays and other medical stuff.
Cosmic and other natural radiation accounts for most of te est.

That is a surprisingly high percentage from X-rays.
I would have thought that with all the care they take nowadays
the absorption during normal X-rays would be negligible.
I wonder if this is due to a very small percentage
getting very high radiation doses during cancer treatment?

Also 36% for cosmic rays seems very high.
It would suggest to me that people who fly a lot (eg pilots)
must get massive doses.

Fallout from Chernobyl and nuclear industry sources is utterly trivial
by comparison.

I agree with this.
Also, it is amazing that people who claim to be concerned about radiation
do not seem to worry at all about radon,
especially as it is relatively easy to reduce the dosage from this.

Incidentally, all this does not prove that nuclear power generation
is a sensible option.
I do not think it is;
it has always been subsidized to a large (and hidden) extent
by weapons production.
It is a very expensive way of generating electricity.



--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
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