A major problem here is that people often conflate nuclear power plants with nuclear bombs - in people's imaginations nuclear power plants could go up like a bo

A major problem here is that people often conflate nuclear power plants with nuclear bombs - in people's imaginations nuclear power plants could go up like a bomb and are therefore very dangerous. The fact that this is impossible doesn't get in the way of people's general perception, unfortunately. Actually looking at the evidence provides a different story altogether - the XKCD radiation chart [1] being one of the most striking examples of the levels of radiation we're talking about here. It's a pity (though not unexpected) that the media lap up this kind of sentiment despite the fact that hey, our planet is dying, and maybe we need to stop playing around with misconceptions for a second and maybe try and work on fixing this? I guess our grandchildren will be the ones to find out how this one plays out. [1]:http://xkcd.com/radiation/ http://xkcd.com/radiation/