3 ms·
> 1. While average deaths per kWh might be relatively low (compared to other forms of power generation) the worst case scenario is much, much worse. A coal plan
by Balgair 7y ago
> 1. While average deaths per kWh might be relatively low (compared to other forms of power generation) the worst case scenario is much, much worse. A coal plant just isn't capable of making a thousand square miles uninhabitable for centuries.
This is one of the main issues with nuclear technology in general. We just don't have a good 'training data set' for many of the energy applications.
With weapons, we have a very good suspicion that 'tatical' uses of the technology will cause the end of the world. The probabilities are well-enough known and the outcomes are dire enough that we've been living in 'pax-nuclei' for nearly 80 years now.
With medicine, we know how nuclear based medtech works and we have a 'good enough' idea that the benefits outweight the costs. Yes, the contrast dye is not good for you, but it'll give us a really good idea where the blockage is. Yes, the radiation chemo is not fun, but the cancer will kill you before the radiation does. The probabilities are well known and the expected values are understood.
However, with nuclear energy, we do not have a good understanding of the expected values. Sure, the French run nuclear plants fairly well. But we thought that the Japanese did too, and look what happened when a 'black swan' came along. Deaths/KW-hr may be less for now, but we have a farily good suspicion that they could go up by a whole heck of a lot. Chernobyl was a disaster, but via the heroics of the people there, it was somewhat contained. What would have happened if they only had 90% of the heroes that were there? 80%? That fault-tree contains a lot of very bad situations. As such, it is not unreasonable to say that we need more information on nuclear energy before deciding on our energy future.