Nuclear material has the fantastic property that you can precisely measure the danger. Regardless of the specifics of the material, regardless of the geometry,

Nuclear material has the fantastic property that you can precisely measure the danger. Regardless of the specifics of the material, regardless of the geometry, size, surface coating, chemical composition -- a geiger counter will tell you exactly how dangerous the material is. There is this kind of weird thing that people do where they assume nuclear waste is uniquely dangerous. It isn't! We can just measure it, so the danger is perfectly legible. This is a good thing! The rest of industrial waste is NOT like this. You can see studies of people who live in areas near oil refineries and chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana -- population level cancer and birth defect rates are very high. It's exactly as you say, bog standard "dangerous chemicals" are just as dangerous as nuclear radiation is. Only we can't measure them, so I guess what can ya do if a whole city gets birth defects or cancer? The double standard is actually wild. I would prefer to live next to a nuclear plant, thank you very much. I can get a geiger counter and know if I'm being poisoned.