Another blow for nuclear power, as gas lines kill five.
Wait, gas lines? Of course. All other forms of power generation, including wind power and solar, kill more people every year than nuclear power. They also all kill more wildlife and do more environmental harm. But no one cares, they just care that the other forms aren’t NUCLEAR!!! Because NUCLEAR is bad!
Chernobyl! Booga booga!
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What? You mean we don’t live in a Perfect world? You mean that any activity, no matter how well you plan and prepare, can end up with you hurt or dead?
Say it ain’t so.
Yes, I support Nuclear power, and natural gas, etc.
It’s the same logic as people being afraid of flying who aren’t phased by driving, even though driving is statistically much more dangerous. Nuclear power and airplanes are big, rarely directly encountered, and relatively new to our society. Accidents associated with them are huge news (because of their rarity, and because when they do fail they tend to fail big). So we overestimate their danger, while we underestimate the danger of familiar things that we directly experience on an everyday basis and where accidents barely make the local news.
Not to mention the way coal power releases (into the air) more radioactivity every hour than all the world’s nuclear plants do in a decade. (Estimated, but still right, since n > 0 for any positive n…)
The only dangerous thing about a modern nuclear power plant that’s any different from any steam-driven turbine system is the waste.
Which means it’s not dangerous at all, in the real world.
Those early-years Simpsons episodes about nuclear-plant meltdowns sure look quaint now, don’t they?
I wonder how much of our lingering cultural fear of nuclear power we can ascribe to that show’s being born at the tail-end of the NO NUKES bumper-sticker phase.
VENTING PREVENTS EXPLOSION.
when my wife first heard the news reports she assumed it was a nuclear power plant. Since I am a nuclear engineer, she assumed it was bad for my career.
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