this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Not all Nuclear Power is equal. RBMK reactors are dangerous as fuck. Others not so much.
If you take all operational nuclear reactors safety records into account from all countries in the world, including all meltdowns and near meltdown disasters, it's still by far safer and has resulted in less deaths and long term illness than any fossil fuel, on every single metric.
True that newer style reactors are far safer, but that's the point. If we had started to transition in the 70's into nuclear power, we would have made a massive dent in climate change and set the stage to transition into full clean renewable energy sources and along the way improved regulations and engineering standards for existing nuclear plants.
Yes, BUT the risk isn't distributed like the rest. One Reactor could displace tens of millions of people, disrupt infrastructure, and cause devastating impact to the US economy. That's a lot of risk based on it's proximity. If they could build them in the middle of nowhere out west that could all be mitigated.
Right. Most don't understand that risk is not just measured by frequency alone, but also by severity.
Nuclear is off the charts once you consider the full magnitude of a failure.
Isn't there Thorium reactors or something that should be some of the safest. And the waste can't be turned to nuclear weapons. So it probably won't be used :(