Radiation Dose
Ionizing radiation is absorbed by the body and damages the tissues. The potential impact of radiation exposure to the body is called "radiation hazard" and is measured with a quantity called the "dose".
The "Effective Dose" measures the overall cancer hazard to humans. It has units of sievert-Sv. The increase in risk of cancer is about 5% per sievert.
1 Sv is a very large dose. In real-life situations, we use sub-multiples of the Sv:
milli |
m |
10-3 |
x 0.001 |
micro |
µ |
10-6 |
x 0.000 001 |
nano |
n |
10-9 |
x 0.000 000 001 |
The PCAIRE code calculates the doses in micro sievert (µSv).