IAEA: "No worker has received a dose above Japan's guidance value of 250 mSv for restricting the exposure of emergency workers"

It must be a miracle

The constant redesigning and repositioning of exposure numbers out of tepco is a fact of life we have no choice but to deal with, but it's difficult to buy these figures until they bring all radiation workers at Daichi out of anonymity and track them for the next 18 months.  Remember stories about massive doses after the initial explosion, the immeasurable and highly dangerous neutron fluxes, the lack of personal dosimeters and lax safety management at the plant?

We can use simple math to show that normal Japanese citizens living in the vicinity of the plant have actually accumulated doses higher than those who are working the crisis thus far.  This will help you realize that 250mSv-max for all plant workers is a notion that is difficult to swallow.  Most of the plant workers are very likely below this level, but not all.

So the question is, if average citizens living 20-30km away from Daichi racked up numbers as high as this in such a short period of time, how were the first-responders (who were intimately involved in the effort to cool the reactors) able to keep their doses within 250mSv cumulative?  Follow-up will tell.

The highest plant worker's radiation exposure was just 7x the amount of a heavy smoker.  Amazing.

Read the story here
Read about lax plant safety during the crisis here