Nuclear Plant Radiation
Divides by reactors or years, not energy produced. Per TWh, nuclear kills about 0.03 people (0.07 if you count the WHO's projected Chernobyl cancers). Coal kills 24. Your personal risk from a nearby plant is on the order of one in a billion per year.
Calculate Your Risk
The misleading stat
Nuclear disasters have killed thousands
(global average, including people never exposed)
vs
Your actual annual risk
1 in 1,092,394,793
(0.0000% chance per year)
For comparison
- Car crash (US annual): 1 in 8,000
- Lightning strike (US annual): 1 in 16,000,000
- Bee sting death (US annual): 1 in 4,600,000
Methodology & sources
This calculator multiplies chained probabilities:
- Hourly dose rate: 1.14e-11 — US NRC radiation protection FAQ: about 0.01 millirem (0.0001 mSv) per year for people living within 50 miles (80 km) of a nuclear plant. 0.0001 mSv / 8,760 hours = 1.14e-11 Sv per hour
- Hours outdoors
- Days per year
- Cancer risk factor: 0.055 — ICRP Publication 103: nominal risk coefficient ~5.5% excess cancer risk per Sv