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The question is not whether nuclear reactors are safe. They are dangerous and cause accidents that cause death and injury. But, that's true of literally every
by anonporridge 5y ago
The question is not whether nuclear reactors are safe. They are dangerous and cause accidents that cause death and injury.
But, that's true of literally every source of energy. You have to look at the danger posed holistically.
And the fact is, the actual realized danger posed by old generation nuclear is orders of magnitude less dangerous than every fossil fuel source, even when accounting for major disasters like Chernobyl and Fukishima. https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
In light of this data, it seems to me that any decision to avoid nuclear that leads to more fossil fuel burning, which is almost always what happens when we prematurely shut down nuclear plants, is almost criminally the wrong choice.
- hardolaf 5y agoOur World in Data included the entire lifecycle and the most pessimistic models for nuclear as part of that analysis, if you use the same methods for every single source, wind and solar are an entire order of magnitude higher. Alternatively, if you use the UN's official estimates of the same thing, nuclear is an entire order of magnitude lower than where it is in Our World in Data's chart. Gotta love when they put bias into how they present the numbers.
- croes 5y agoAre you sure? What about wars?