Re:Our Newfound Fear of Risk
by anigbrowl on Tuesday September 03, 2013 @05:54PM
(#6324093)
Yes, but if you want to do something about global warming it'd be a lot smarter to keep the nuclear power stations running and take coal plants offline instead. Nuclear power has a spotty safety record overall, and the consequences of a mistake can be acutely disastrous, but coal is likewise a chronic disaster.
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> Nuclear power has a spotty safety record overall
This is so incredibly false it's on par with stating "commercial aviation has a spotty safety record overall".
I disagree. There have been lots of low-level safety violations, and it's easy to find examples of chronic mismanagement. By 'spotty' I mean lots of small flaws, a few big ones here and there. Certainly, it has a good low ratio of deaths per megawatt of power generated, but such metrics are not the whole story.
I'm very pro-nuclear, but don't think there's an mileage in blowing off safety concerns.
Agreed, I'm all for nuclear power personally and that is a somewhat less logical position, but the irrational fear of nuclear power is more of a worldwide phenomenon than a German one. All I'm saying is I think comparing American fear-culture to Germany's decision to quickly move to solar is at best apples to oranges and at worst completely nonsensical.