Is radiation exposure from a nuclear power plant always fatal?
No, routine emissions during normal operation of a nuclear power plant are never lethal. Even in the very unlikely event of a nuclear power plant accident, it would be extremely unlikely that someone would be in an area for a sufficient period of time to receive a radiation dose that would be considered lethal. Experience has shown that, during normal operations, nuclear power plants typically release only a small fraction of the radiation allowed by the NRC’s established limits. In fact, a person who spends a full year at the boundary of a nuclear power plant site would receive an additional radiation exposure of less than 1 percent of the radiation that everyone receives from natural background sources. This additional exposure (about 300 millirems — a unit used in measuring radiation absorption and its effects) has not been shown to cause any harm to human beings.
