31 One source thought my 0.4 millirems per day “a very reasonable assumption.” He said that as much as 0.2 millirems might be normal background for that area. He did not say that he knew this to be a fact, and I would imagine, given his nuclear reactor background, that he might tend toward optimistic characterizations in this regard.
32 If the Yomiuri Shimbun's figure is correct and consistent, then about three years would suffice to reach that same nasty 5-rem dose.
33 The most common fish is (or was) flatfish.
34 Six hundred sieverts would be about a hundred times the lethal dose. A chest X-ray is 0.001 sievert.
35 In the short run, at least, Koriyama’s readings held consistent. Half of the following day was spent in reaching Tokyo; hence, as arithmetic might predict, that day gave me merely twice the Tokyo baseline, or 0.2 millirems.
36 This was Iitate Village, mentioned below. A different (one-time) statistic gave Iitate’s dose as 9.13 microsieverts per hour, which works out to 21.9 millirems per day, so that the five rems would be reached in 228 days. See The Japan Times, March 27, 2011, 2 (map: “Maximum radiation levels in eastern Japan: Data from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Saturday”).
37 Per hour. This would be about 1.4 millirems per day, or about four times what my dosimeter was reporting for Koriyama. At this rate, a resident of Kawauchi would have accrued five rems in about nine years and nine months.
38 My interpolation. He actually said, “So they went to see.”
39 Per hour, presumably. This would be 0.91 millirems per day — a bit less than Mr. Sato’s figure. If this held stable over time, more than 15 years would be needed to accrue 5 rems.
40 Chogoku Shimbun, April 11, 2011, front page.
The author getting radiation screening in Koriyama following his second visit to the hot zone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William T. Vollmann is the author of nine novels, including Europe Central, winner of the National Book Award. He has also written three collections of stories, a memoir, and five works of nonfiction, including, most recently, Imperial and Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement, and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater. His epic treatise on violence, Rising Up and Rising Down, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN Center USA West Award, and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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