Daily Mail
"Because here we had an ancient, creaking plant. It contained several design flaws; most notably the questionable decision to store spent fuel rods perilously close to the reactors, on the roof. There seems to have been some skulduggery over the years involving the plant’s operators and the nuclear regulators in Japan. Profits were put before safety, corners were cut, lies were told. And yet, and yet, this cannot be stated loudly or often enough – we have not yet seen A SINGLE DEATH which can be attributed to radiation. .....To put it in perspective, he said, the rise in background radiation in the Tokyo metropolitan area immediately after the accident (thanks to dispersal and natural radioactive decay it will be lower now) was from about 1.5 millisieverts (the sievert is a rather oddly defined unit of radioactive exposure in the body) per year to maybe 3-4mSv.
So a doubling – a tripling even. Sounds terrifying. But the thing is, the natural background radiation level in the UK is about 2.5mSV per year. In parts of Cornwall, much of which is underlain by mildly radioactive granite, levels are probably 3-5mSv/year. If you live in an old stone cottage, whose walls are seeping radon gas into your living room, your radiation exposure levels may be an order of magnitude higher again."
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