Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The SI unit for the amount of ionizing radiation required to produce the same biological effect as one rad of high-penetration x-rays, equivalent to a gray for x-rays.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun   In the International System of Units , thederived unit ofradiation dose ; thedose received in onehour at a distance of 1 cm from a point source of 1 mg ofradium in a 0.5 mm thickplatinum enclosure. Symbol: Sv
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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								To estimate this, dose equivalent, in a unit called the sievert (Sv), is used. 
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								To distinguish between different levels of danger in similar quantities of radiation, scientists use a measure called a sievert. Radiation Math: How Do We Count the Rays? Carl Bialik 2011 
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								Comparitively speaking, a becquerel is very little radiation, while a gray and a sievert are a lot, physicists say. Radiation Math: How Do We Count the Rays? Carl Bialik 2011 
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								Like the gray, the sievert is a large unit and for normal radiation protection levels a series of prefixes are used: nanoSievert (nSv) is one thousand millionth of a Sievert (1/1,000,000,000) microSievert (µSv) is one millionth of a Sievert (1/1,000,000) milliSievert (mSv) is one thousandth of a Sievert (1/1,000) Radiation units 2009 
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								A thousandth of a sievert, which has no detectable effect on health, is called a millisievert. In Japan, Let's Stop Sweating The Small (Nuclear) Stuff 2011 
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								Estimated cancer risk from radiation is assumed to be 4% per sievert, he said. Tokyo Suspends More Food Shipments Megumi Fujikawa 2011 
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								Following the incident, the radiation level near the main gate of the Fukushima No. 1 plant exceeded the legal limit to reach 965.5 micro sievert per hour at 7:00 a.m. and jumped to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 a.m., the agency said. 
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								Later in the morning, a radiation level of 326 micro sievert was recorded there. Radiation's Effect Depends on Amount Gautam Naik 2011 
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								The latter amount is more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert level to which people can safely be exposed in one year. 
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								One sievert, if experienced all at once, is likely to make you pretty nauseated, and 3.5 sieverts is the level that kills 50% of exposed people. In Japan, Let's Stop Sweating The Small (Nuclear) Stuff 2011 
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