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Do I get a higher radiation dose from living near the nuclear reactor?

Sydney residents receive a background radiation dose from natural sources of about 2 millisieverts (mSv) annually.  For artificial sources of radiation; including exposures during medical procedures, ARPANSA recommends, in line with international standards, a public dose limit of 1mSv/year.  However, emissions from the reactor are much lower than this limit.  For example, monitoring during 2005-2006 showed maximum effective doses to members of the community potentially affected by routine airborne emissions from the ANSTO site to be less than 0.004 mSv/year.  In contrast, if you were to move from Sydney to Katoomba, your annual dose would increase by around 0.5 mSv/year due to the increase in elevation above sea level. 

The details of ANSTO's environmental monitoring, including data tables and explanation of how the results were obtained, can be found in ANSTO's annual E Reports, available in local libraries and through ANSTO.  You can access ANSTO's latest E Report through this link.