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Finally a step in the right direction. We need dependable energy that can live with society. Smog from coal power kills 24,000 American annually (and $53 billi
by electromagnetic 15y ago
Finally a step in the right direction. We need dependable energy that can live with society.
Smog from coal power kills 24,000 American annually (and $53 billion in damages: IE from its relation to non life threatening diseases like pneumonia) . Nuclear has killed 31 workers in its entirety of operation. The WHO estimates Chernobyl may have caused 4,000 civilian deaths since the accident, the Union of Concerned Scientists says 25,000.
I don't get why a single coal plant is still open when even the worst nuclear disaster on record is just another normal day for fossil fuel usage.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoProbably has something to do with that whole town that's uninhabitable. People are funny that way.
- yew 15y agoThey are, aren't they. A town all in one place versus a few dozen spread far enough apart and suddenly nobody notices the disparity. Ah well.
- trafficlight 15y agoNot quite the same level of destruction, but Centralia, PA has been almost entirely abandoned since 1962 due to an ongoing coal mine fire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
- ScotterC 15y agoA full 50 year fire. Sounds a tad worse then any nuclear failure I know of. Even Nagasaki / Hiroshima were livable within a year.
- ekianjo 15y agoActually not even within a year. People kept living there after the explosion. They had nowhere to go anyway. I remember that in Nagasaki (or Hiroshima, not sure anymore which one) they had the tramway back on track just one week after the nuclear bomb. Of course there were a higher number of leukemia and other health issues, but it recovered fast, very fast.
- ScotterC 15y agoThanks for the correction
- pyre 15y ago> not even within a year It was less than "less than or equal to a year?"
- daeken 15y ago"He held his breath for a long time, but within a year he was forced to start again." "I believe it was actually about 5 minutes." "Is that not within a year?" There's a huge difference between people remaining in a city through a nuclear bomb blast and people coming back to that city less than a year later. That's what the parent was trying to get across.
- ekianjo 15y agoYes, thanks for clarifying, my first sentence was not very clear.
- pippy 15y agoThis is why I love HN. A purely rational discussion with citations. Not even Reddit achieves this level of discourse. I live in New Zealand where many are extremely anti-nuclear, almost to the point of ridiculousness. This causes massive problems: soured relations with United States (and other nuclear capable countries), high prices for electricity, and an arrogant perception on our environment. The last point is very important: dairy farms and coal mining are destroying the environment but kiwis still perceive themselves as 'clean and green'. 50% of our waterways are toxic. 28 Miners lost their lives digging for coal in one accident, yet there was no massive backlash against coal in New Zealand. If one person died in a nuclear power plant, there would be questions over the entire feasibility of nuclear power in multiple countries, which is ridiculous.
- ekianjo 15y agoTotally agree with your point. "Nuclear" has become a taboo, even in wording. When you go for a MRI, you know it stands for "Magnetic Resonance Imaging" (MRI), but the actual full name of the diagnostic tool is "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI)". Because the full name has the "N word" in it, it scares the hell out of people who have no understanding of Science whatsoever. Completely irrational.
- woodson 15y agoWell, considering the dangers presented by earthquakes (cf. Fukushima), maybe there are reasons for New Zealanders to be anti-nuclear: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes_in_New_Zealand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes_in_New_Zealand I know, a lot of different factors contributed to the outcome in Fukushima (e.g. power generators installed in the basement, which is flooded after a Tsunami. See http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/24-hours-at-fukushima/0 http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/24-hours-at-fukushim... for a good analysis). Still, one might argue that there are areas that are not quite suitable for building nuclear power plants.
- electromagnetic 15y agoCentralia isn't even a town any more. Its buildings have all been reclaimed and condemned and the zip code has been revoked. The government is likely concerned that the fire is going to cause the entire area to subsist through loss of mass underground.
- zeteo 15y agoHaven't heard anyone arguing for the elimination of the chemical industry after the Bhopal accident.
- mark_up 15y agoBhopal neither killed nor posed any danger to white people.
- nitrogen 15y agoNote to dead responder mark_up (http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mark_up http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mark_up): your account (and every comment you have posted) is, for whatever reason, flagged. Was your first comment massively downvoted and/or flagged, then deleted?
- lispm 15y agoThe US could update their old coal power plants to the usual standards or replace them with newer ones.