Over at Information is Beautiful they’ve got a chart detailing the levels of radiation at the Fukushima nuclear disaster compared with other things, like the radiation at Chernobyl (bad) and the radiation for eating a banana (not so much).
As XKCD tried to put into perspective earlier, the radiation at the plant is a real threat to the heroic workers trying to shut it down … but for the rest of us, not so much.
Sorry, folks. Radiation is just not as dangerous as you’ve been told in the movies and the media – we simply try to keep exposure low because the effects are random. And even if you do get a fatal dose, it won’t give you superpowers.
-the Centaur
