Fukushima Is "Exaggerated"

According to Japan's NRA chief.

He is correct that the media has portrayed a doomsdayish scenario, largely based on what TEPCO said.

Part of the problem is that the unit of "mSv" is used to describe dose (energy deposited per mass of tissue), effective dose (dose multiplied by a radiation weighting factor to account for low and high LET radiations), and effective dose equivalent (effective dose multiplied by a tissue weighting factor to account for heterogeneity in tissue sensitivity to cancer).

With gamma radiation, these three metrics are all the same, but not with beta radiation.  With beta radiation the first two metrics are the same.  But since external beta radiation only affects the skin and eye the risk of cancer is much less by a factor of 100.  And since the skin and eye are easily shielded, the actual risk may be much lower.