It is being reported on the news today¹ that elevated radiation levels have lead to the partial evacuation of the Sellafield site. This reminded me of a Norwegian study² of the affects of a leak from the Highly Active Liquor tanks at Sellafield – hopefully this is not what has happened today.

Note that the IAEA criteria for evacuation is 1MBq/m²

1 Sellafield nuclear site has elevated levels of radioactivity, Guardian Friday 31 January 2014 (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/31/sellafield-nuclear-site-elevated-levels-radioactivity)

2 Consequences in Norway of a hypothetical accident at Sellafield, Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, 2009 (http://www.nrpa.no/dav/a368e9b53c.pdf)