3 ms·

Dams burst and kill lots of people. Not often in the scheme of things, but by comparison they make nuclear look like a saint. Incident Location Fatali

Dams burst and kill lots of people. Not often in the scheme of things, but by comparison they make nuclear look like a saint. Incident Location Fatalities Banqiao China 171000 Machchu India 5000 South Fork USA 2208 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam_failure The environmental impact of flooding entire basins is also pretty rough, and basins don't exist everywhere you might want one.

cma 6y ago
Nuclear is very often (majority?) located on connected lakes with dams cooling and pumped storage.
bsder 6y ago
Neither Machchu nor South Fork Dam are good examples in this particular argument. They were never used for power generation. Banqiao, however, is spot on.
- natmaka 6y ago
  Not so sure about Banquiao, at it "took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution when most people were busy with the "revolution" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure The "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966. In such a context an otherwise avoidable catastrophe may happen. This Revolution followed the "Great Leap Forward" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward ), with famines. "In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan was one of the hardest hit and millions of lives were lost." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henan#Modern_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henan#Modern_Era . Moreover all this came after a civil war and violent Japanese invasion, during which dams were bombed, causing "massive flooding in Henan" (same source). Predicting and adverting this catastrophe was possible, but given such a context nobody was able to do so.

cma 6y ago

Nuclear is very often (majority?) located on connected lakes with dams cooling and pumped storage.

bsder 6y ago

Neither Machchu nor South Fork Dam are good examples in this particular argument. They were never used for power generation. Banqiao, however, is spot on.

natmaka 6y ago
Not so sure about Banquiao, at it "took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution when most people were busy with the "revolution" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Banqiao_Dam_failure The "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966. In such a context an otherwise avoidable catastrophe may happen. This Revolution followed the "Great Leap Forward" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward ), with famines. "In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan was one of the hardest hit and millions of lives were lost." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henan#Modern_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henan#Modern_Era . Moreover all this came after a civil war and violent Japanese invasion, during which dams were bombed, causing "massive flooding in Henan" (same source). Predicting and adverting this catastrophe was possible, but given such a context nobody was able to do so.