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Sadly, coal power plants release more radiation directly into the atmosphere than nuclear, due to naturally occurring isotopes embedded in the coal ore. So bec

Sadly, coal power plants release more radiation directly into the atmosphere than nuclear, due to naturally occurring isotopes embedded in the coal ore. So because they were so scared of potential radiation, they ended up ... getting definite radiation instead. Winning!

dragonwriter 7y ago
> Sadly, coal power plants release more radiation directly into the atmosphere than nuclear, More on average. Far less worst case.
- gibolt 7y ago
  Average is the worst case, as everyone has to deal with it. The chance of anything going wrong with a modern nuclear facility is astronomically low.
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > Average is the worst case, as everyone has to deal with it. That's true if: (1) No one in the worst case receives a kind of damage that is not compensable, and (2) You have systems in place so that all the people who experience better than average results compensate all those who receive worse than average results. > The chance of anything going wrong with a modern nuclear facility is astronomically low. The chance of anything going wrong in a modern design, implemented without cutting corners, and operated without cutting corners is, yes. Whether you trust the poltiico-economic system in your country (and that of whoever is providing design/build support, for countries where that isn't purely domestic) is an open question. Social factors are part of the risk calculus. Nuclear disasters have generally not been unavoidable consequences of the technical knowledge at the time they were constructed and operated occuring at their irreducible rate, they've been symptoms of failures of the social systems involved in planning the deployment and use of the technology. You can't assess the real risk of nuclear from the risk posed by the technology when properly applied in an ideal social context alone.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  If we use worst case for everything then we should treat all coal mining as setting literally every coal vein on fire and unextinguishable a la Centralia, PA. Absolute worst case isn't a very sane way of setting assumptions or we would bar all surgery because of the risk of it killing people.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> Sadly, coal power plants release more radiation directly into the atmosphere than nuclear, More on average. Far less worst case.

gibolt 7y ago
Average is the worst case, as everyone has to deal with it. The chance of anything going wrong with a modern nuclear facility is astronomically low.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > Average is the worst case, as everyone has to deal with it. That's true if: (1) No one in the worst case receives a kind of damage that is not compensable, and (2) You have systems in place so that all the people who experience better than average results compensate all those who receive worse than average results. > The chance of anything going wrong with a modern nuclear facility is astronomically low. The chance of anything going wrong in a modern design, implemented without cutting corners, and operated without cutting corners is, yes. Whether you trust the poltiico-economic system in your country (and that of whoever is providing design/build support, for countries where that isn't purely domestic) is an open question. Social factors are part of the risk calculus. Nuclear disasters have generally not been unavoidable consequences of the technical knowledge at the time they were constructed and operated occuring at their irreducible rate, they've been symptoms of failures of the social systems involved in planning the deployment and use of the technology. You can't assess the real risk of nuclear from the risk posed by the technology when properly applied in an ideal social context alone.
Nasrudith 7y ago
If we use worst case for everything then we should treat all coal mining as setting literally every coal vein on fire and unextinguishable a la Centralia, PA. Absolute worst case isn't a very sane way of setting assumptions or we would bar all surgery because of the risk of it killing people.