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With most energy generation schemes, including nuclear, many costs and risks are externalized to a third party -- namely the taxpayer. I'm not familiar enough
by Duff 15y ago
With most energy generation schemes, including nuclear, many costs and risks are externalized to a third party -- namely the taxpayer.
I'm not familiar enough with the methodology to dispute it's finding regarding deaths, but I'd argue that evaluating risks solely on the number of attributable deaths is not a full accounting of risk.
What is the economic and social impact of the 20 mile exclusion zone around Fukushima? You're looking at a handful of deaths, but many lives have been affected nonetheless. If my rooftop solar panel kills my family somehow, that is a personal tragedy, but the scope in terms of people affected is nothing like a rare, but catastrophic nuclear failure.
- vibragiel 15y agoThat's a valid argument, but this thread is all about human safety.
- Duff 15y agoThat's a problem -- engineers are frequently frustrated with the public perception of nuclear because they focus on a single metric which is just one of many considerations.
- vibragiel 15y agoBut that's wrong. Just because this thread is about human safety doesn't mean that a lot (lot, lot) hasn't been written about socioeconomic aspects of the different energy sources.
- neutronicus 15y agoYou can say similar things about coal and strip-mining.
- plesn 15y agoMany things are "externalized" in the process and we are pretty naive about risk. Do we count the cost of side-effects like wars and oppression in our energy ? Think about Libya for oil or Niger for Uranium. Do we count the cost for democracy of the impact of energy lobbies ? Centralized production entails centralized structures which often have a tremendous influence (in France there was never ever any democratic feedback loop about nuclear energy). The cynical view though is that this is nothing compared to other "industrial risks" and to the insiduous and continuous risk we are producing by saturating our planet with garbage.