Note the dose rate just above the water surface in one of the “troughs” at one of the plants is evidently over 1000 *milli* Sieverts/hour.
So that’s pretty damn high. And I believe that is outside the containment. The accepted total dose (I don’t know if this is per year, or per incident or whatever) is 100 mSv (Japan’s old limit), 250 mSv (Japan’s new limit for this emergency), or 500 mSv (World Health Org).
Even using the highest number, 500 mSv, you’d get that in half an hour hanging out near that trough.
But at other places in the plant the dose rate is in the microsieverts per hour.
Unfortunately you start talking “milli” and “micro” and some folks eyes will start to glaze over. They both start with an “m” but it’s important to try to keep them straight as a milli is a thousand times bigger than a micro.
