Question: How serious can radiation get?

Samantha Watson answered on 7 Nov 2016:

Fab question! With quite a long answer I’m afraid.

Radiation can get quite serious, especially in accident situations, but most of the time it is well controlled and in fact we live with every day. Everyone is exposed to radiation from a variety of sources, mostly natural, and if you look here you will see a breakdown of where radiation exposure in the UK typically comes from. And this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCsJcfmL7TE will explain more about everyday exposure to radiation.

The use of radiation or radioactive material for applications such as medical use or power production is generally very well controlled and subject to many safety requirements. However, there is still the potential for accidents to occur. Two accidents you will most likely have heard of are the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, and the 2011 accident at Fukushima. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) does report that a number of workers present at the Chernobyl site at the time of the accident had a confirmed diagnosis of acute radiation syndrome, and that there have been many cases of thyroid cancer detected in those who were children and adolescents in Belarus, Ukraine and the most affected Russian regions at the time of the accident. However, there have been no radiation related deaths or acute diseases observed among the workers and general public exposed to radiation from the Fukushima accident.