> Another big exception is plastic, which covers the vast majority of usecases. Also we're nowhere near "peak" coal, so metal is not going to be a problem any t

> Another big exception is plastic, which covers the vast majority of usecases. Also we're nowhere near "peak" coal, so metal is not going to be a problem any time soon. Eventually, yes, but not this century. Coal matters if one is concerned about CO2 emissions if nothing else. > The stupid fact is that if they hadn't shut down the entire plant, they wouldn't have lost cooling, and we would all have been perfectly fine. Do we know for sure that containment wasn't lost due to structural damage from the earthquake? > I would also like to say the death toll of Fukushima compares favorably with wind-power related deaths during the same circumstances... Is death toll the only factor though? I don't know about you but I think the major impact of Chernobyl of Fukushima will not be, in a hundred years, the death toll but the fact that you have areas of land that are no longer useful for many purposes, like growing food.