While I agree that humans are generally way too critical of nuclear power, when they seem fine with radioactive coal ash being blown into the atmosphere, measur

While I agree that humans are generally way too critical of nuclear power, when they seem fine with radioactive coal ash being blown into the atmosphere, measuring nuclear safety on the order of directly attributable deaths is really stupid. And as someone already mentioned. Nuclear needs to be very reliable, because malfunctions, while they may not cause armageddon, can kill entire blocks and make the cleanup even more costly than a normal decomissioning. You absolutely want to build these things to last and be reliable. Just look at Greifswald Unit 5 partially melting down less than a month into operation. In fact, Greifswald and their numerous close calls are a great example for where "less safe nuclear" would lead us.