Nuclear Energy Institute | Science Club | Nuclear World

Radiation—It’s all Around Us

Radiation is natural. It’s in our food, in the air, water and soil. It’s even in our bodies. It comes from unstable atoms—tiny particles of matter. As these atoms break up, they produce invisible energy waves or particles. Our bodies absorb a small amount of this radiation—every hour, every day, every week. (Click on all eight rollovers below to obtain more information.)

Sun About 8 percent of our radiation comes from outer space— the sun and stars.
Rocks and soil About 8 percent of our radiation comes from rocks and soil.
Airplane Each round-trip airplane flight across the United States accounts for an additional 1 percent of our radiation every year.
Houses About 55 percent of our radiation comes from radon—a gas produced from natural uranium in the ground—that is trapped in homes.
Hospital About 15 percent of our radiation comes from medical and dental X-rays.
TV Set About 3 percent of our radiation comes from consumer products, including television sets.
Human body About 11 percent of our radiation is inside our own bodies—it comes from the food we eat and water we drink.
Nuclear power plant Living within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant accounts for less than two ten-thousandths of 1 percent of our radiation every year.

Nuclear Energy Institute—Washington, DC
August 2000